May 27, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) have announced their Academic All-District Teams for men's and women's at-large sports, and two Northwestern University student-athletes have been honored in District V -- Courtney Koester (Richmond, Ind./Richmond) from women's lacrosse and Tony Swanson (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) from men's swimming.
CoSIDA's District V consists of all NCAA Division I institutions in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as major universities in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario.
The at-large teams are made up of student-athletes who play sports that are not specifically covered by CoSIDA's Academic All-America program; the sports that are covered in the program are football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, cross country/track & field. The All-District Teams are voted on by CoSIDA members, and move on to the national ballot. The CoSIDA Academic All-America Men's At-Large Team will be announced June 15, while the Women's At-Large Team will be announced June 17.
The election of Koester and Swanson brings to nine the number of Northwestern student-athletes who have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors this year. Three of those student-athletes have already earned National Academic All-America recognition.
Koester was a tri-captain and catalyst for the Wildcat lacrosse program this season; she helped the third-year program go 15-3 and reach the NCAA quarterfinal round (where they lost to eventual national champion Virginia).
Koester earned first-team All-American Lacrosse Conference honors for the second straight year after leading the 'Cats in draw controls (45) and caused turnovers (20). She anchored a defense that ranked fifth nationally during the regular season in goals-against average. All this from a third-year player who had never played lacrosse before being recruited to try out in the fall of 2001. Koester is a computer engineering major who is a senior but still has a year of lacrosse eligibility left and plans to use it next spring.
Swanson was one of the leaders as the NU men's swimming team had one of its finest seasons ever. He earned six All-America citations in helping the 'Cats to an 11th-place finish at the 2004 NCAA National Championships.
Swanson is a 10-time All-America and four-time Big Ten Conference champion who was the Swimmer of the Meet at the 2002 Big Ten Championships. He currently holds two school records and is part of four school-record holding relays. Swanson is a mechanical engineering major who is graduating in June.