Meisner earns first-team Academic All-America® honors

OLIVET, Mich. – Former Olivet College swimmer and recent graduate Dustin Meisner (Temperance/Erie Mason) has been named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine College Division Academic All-America® At-large first-team, as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He is now the first three-time Academic All-America® selection in school history. Meisner was also a first-team selection 2007 and a third-team selection in 2006. He has earned the national honor each year by virtue of being named to the Academic All-District IV first-team.

Meisner graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade point average (GPA) in visual arts and biology. He was a four-year letterwinner on the men's swimming and diving team. Meisner was a four-time Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) selection. In his career at the MIAA championships, he won the 200-yard breaststroke three times and was the runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke four times. Meisner also competed in both events at the 2005, 2006 and 2007 NCAA Division III National Championships, earning honorable mention All-American honors in 2005 and 2007.

Meisner is the school record holder in the 100-yard breaststroke (:57.19) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:04.61). He also swam the breaststroke leg of the school record setting 200-yard medley (1:34.09) and 400-yard medley (3:26.46) relays.

Out of the pool, Meisner was a member of Art Alliance, Omicron Delta Kappa (professional academic honor society), Hosford Society and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He also received the college's Donald A. Morris Award, which is presented each year to the top graduating seniors with the highest GPA.

Meisner is the third student-athlete to earn Academic All-America® honors during the 2007-08 academic year. He and Travis Sleight '06 are the only two student-athletes in school history to earn Academic All-District IV honors three times.

Meisner is the son of Dan and Alison Meisner.

The Academic All-America® program recognizes student-athletes who have succeeded in athletic competition and in the classroom. A national committee of sports information directors select the members of the Academic All-America® team. The at-large teams consist of student-athletes who have competed in bowling, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, men's volleyball, water polo and/or wrestling.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher 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 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

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