IWU’s Molly Coers First Team Academic All-American

May 30, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Molly Coers of Illinois Wesleyan has been elected to the first team of the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American college division softball squad as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Coers (Manito, Ill., Midwest Central HS) graduated in May with a 3.93 grade-point average as an accounting major. A first team academic all-district selection in 2005 and 2007 and second team in 2006, she was the school’s “Merle Chapman Award” winner in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, is a member of the Order of Titans academic and athletic honorary and was a Growmark Scholarship recipient.

This season, the Titan shortstop and leadoff hitter batted .390 and set a school record for most runs in a season (48). Her 64 hits is second most to the school mark of 77 (Brynn Hasse, 2003) and her 24 steals is fifth best in an IWU single season.

She is Illinois Wesleyan’s all-time leader in hits (198) and runs scored (134), is second in steals (68) and her career .378 batting average is fifth best.

A first team all-Great Lakes Region selection and a first team all-CCIW choice in 2007, Coers was second in the league with a .444 average and led the conference with 24 hits. She was second in runs scored (18) and tied for the league lead with three triples.

To be considered for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® squads, players must be of at least sophomore standing, have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 (of 4.0), and be a starter or first-line reserve. A voting board representing the 1,800 members of CoSIDA chooses the teams.

Coers’s selection give Illinois Wesleyan a total of 104 Academic All-America berths earned by Titan student-athletes since the program began in 1970, a total eclipsed by only six other schools, including Nebraska, Notre Dame, Penn State, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

There have been 14 previous IWU softball players who have been Academic All-Americans with the most recent being Hasse (third team, 2004). The last first teamer was Sara Powers in 2001.

CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206