Geisthardt Repeats As CoSIDA Academic All-American
UW-Oshkosh senior punter Turner Geisthardt has earned Google Cloud NCAA Division III Football Academic All-America® First Team honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for the second straight season.
Geisthardt, who owns a 3.94 cumulative grade point average as a kinesiology major, becomes the 19th Titan to receive multiple CoSIDA Academic All-America® mentions and the first since Jordan Carpenter was honored in men's cross country/track & field in both 2014-15 and 2015-16. A total of 54 UW-Oshkosh student-athletes have combined for 77 CoSIDA Academic All-America® awards.
This year's CoSIDA Academic All-America® Football Team featured 25 selections to the first team and 26 to the second. Geisthardt was one of only two punters receiving Academic All-America honors, with the other being second-team award winner Nathan Hawkins of Simpson College (Iowa). Massachusetts Institute of Technology senior quarterback Udgam Goyal was named CoSIDA's NCAA Division III Football Academic All-America of the Year.
A three-time member of the WIAC Scholastic Honor Roll, Geisthardt was selected as a co-recipient of this season's WIAC Football Max Sparger Student-Athlete Award and a semifinalist for the 2018 National Football Foundation William V. Campbell Trophy.
On the field Geisthardt was a five-time All-WIAC selection. He collected all-league honorable mention honors at punter this season after receiving second team laurels as a punter each of the previous three years and first team status as a placekicker in 2017. Geisthardt was named to the D3football.com All-West Region Second Team as a punter last season.
Geisthardt, a 2014 graduate of Oshkosh North High School, concluded his career as UW-Oshkosh's all-time leader with 199 punts and 7,887 punting yards for a 39.6-yard average. His punting yardage ranks fourth in WIAC history.
Geisthardt and the Titans compiled a four-year record of 42-9 and claimed WIAC titles in 2015 and 2017. UW-Oshkosh made three consecutive appearances in the Division III Championship, including a national title game visit in 2016 and a trip to the semifinals in 2017. Geisthardt played in each of the Titans' 51 games over the last four seasons, capping his career with 56 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line.
Previous UW-Oshkosh selections to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Football Team were Tom Schuessler in 1984 (Second Team); Rob Stoltz in 1996 (First Team); Ryan Hinske in 1997 (First Team); Craig Pierstorff in 1998 (Second Team) and 1999 (First Team); Justin Schneider in 2002 (First Team); Ben Strehlow in 2012 (First Team) and Turner Geisthardt in 2017 (First Team).
2018 CoSIDA Google Cloud NCAA Division III Academic All-America® Football Team