Thursday, February 21, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore – Shining both in the classroom and on the court, a pair of representatives from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference have been announced as first-team selections to the 2018-19 Google Cloud Division II Academic All-District 8 Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Western Oregon senior Ali Nelke is joined by Northwest Nazarene senior Ellie Logan as the two women's basketball student-athletes on the six-person team, selected from players from the GNAC, CCAA and PacWest conferences. 

Nelke has been a dynamic force for the Wolves in her final season in Monmouth, getting the job done both scoring-wise (eight points per game) and on the glass (5.3 rebounds per game). Keeping a 4.00 GPA as a business major, the forward is inside the GNAC top-five this season in blocked shots (30), offensive rebounds (three3.0 per game) and minutes played (33.04 per game).

While pursuing her master's of business administration degree, Logan holds a 3.92 GPA and is a three-time Academic All-GNAC selection. On the hardwood, Logan leads the first-place Nighthawks in rebounds at a clip of 5.3 per game. She also ranks second on the NNU scoring list (11.8 points per game) and had one of her best games of the season in December's victory over nationally-ranked Alaska Anchorage, pouring in 12 points while pulling down a team-high seven rebounds. 

To be eligible for the Google Cloud CoSIDA All-Academic All-America nomination process, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average and must have completed one full calendar year at the nominating institution. Nominated athletes must also have participated in at least 50 percent of the team's games at the position listed.

The Academic All-District teams are separated into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. The CoSIDA Academic All-America separately recognizes honorees in four divisions; NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and College Division.

First-team Academic All-District honorees will advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where the All-America honorees will be announced in March.