Baune And Harmelink Named Academic All-Americans

MOORHEAD, Minn. (12/04/12)—Brett Baune and Brett Harmelink earned Capital One Academic All-American honors it was announced on Tuesday. Harmelink was placed on the Academic All-American First Team while Baune was named to the Academic All-American Second Team.

Baune and Harmelink were two of only four MIAC football student/athletes to be awarded Academic All-American honors. Chad Thompson of Augsburg and Gavin Mauer from Bethel also earned Academic All-American honors.

It marks the first time that the Concordia football team has had multiple Academic All-American recipients in the same season. Baune and Harmelink become the sixth and seventh football student/athletes to earn Academic All-American honors. Levi DeVries earned the award in 2008 and was the last Cobber player to receive the honor. 

Concordia has now had 10 Capital One Academic All-American honors in the past five years.

To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 16,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

Harmelink is an Accounting and Business Management double major and carries a 3.90 grade point average. He has been the team's starting punter for two straight seasons and has not had a punt blocked during that stretch. This season he was fifth in the MIAC in punt average. Harmelink averaged 36.0 yards on his 36 punts. He was also tied for second in the conference in punts downed inside the 20-yard line. Harmelink doubled as the team's kickoff man. He averaged 57.3 yards per kickoff this season and had five touchbacks.  

Baune, the team's leading rusher, carries a 3.39 grade point average while majoring in Biology, broke the school record for most touchdowns in a career. He finished with 34 TD's which is one more than current head coach Terry Horan's old mark of 33. Baune also became the first Cobber fullback to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season. He finished the year with 1,050 yards and was second in the MIAC in rushing yards per game. Baune was also second in rushing scores and third in total rushing yards. He finished his career with 2,125 rushing yards which is the fourth most in school history.

Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the 2001 Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) and ESPN's Capital One Bowl Week. In addition, Capital One sponsors the ABC College Football Halftime Report, Capital One All-America Mascot team, Capital One Academic All Program, and supports all 89 NCAA Championships including the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, and numerous other collegiate athletics programs.



Complete List Of Division III Capital One Academic All-Americans (pdf)