Kocian Earns Academic All-District Honors
May 21, 2020 | Gymnastics
UCLA senior gymnast Madison Kocian has been named to the 2020 Academic All-District 8 Women's At-Large first team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). With the selection, Kocian advances to the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot.
Kocian, the 2020 Pac-12 Gymnastics Scholar Athlete of the Year, was selected to the first team among nominees from 14 sports. Kocian, a psychology major, holds a 3.846 cumulative GPA and is a three-time Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) Scholastic All-American and Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.
The Dallas, Texas native made history her freshman season in 2017 when she became the first Olympic gold medalist to compete in NCAA Gymnastics. She went on to win Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors twice and Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week acclaim once that season and captured 16 individual titles, including the 2017 NCAA Regional uneven bars and floor exercise titles. In 2018, Kocian helped UCLA win the NCAA team title and became one of just two female gymnasts ever to win NCAA, World and Olympic championships. The seven-time All-American and five-time All-Pac-12 honoree scored two perfect 10s on uneven bars, the event in which she won Olympic silver in 2016 and World gold in 2015.
Kocian was named to UCLA's All-Academic team in each of the last two years and has earned Director's Honor Roll distinction every quarter at UCLA. She is seeking a postgraduate career as an orthopedic physician assistant.
Kocian is just the fifth Bruin gymnast ever to earn Academic All-District honors and the first since Samantha Peszek in 2015.
The Academic All-District team is selected by members of CoSIDA. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. In the at-large category, only four men and four women from the eligible sports can be nominated per school.
Players Mentioned
