OKLAHOMA CITY (May 21, 2020) – For the first time in 12 years, Oklahoma Christian landed a golfer on the Academic All-District At-Large list when
Andres Brictson made the 10-man team released Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Brictson, a junior from Merida, Mexico, is only the fourth OC golfer ever to receive Academic All-District At-Large honors, joining Diego Fernandez (2002, 2003), Bruno Buccolo (2006, 2007, 2008) and Rhein Gibson (2007, 2008), all of whom were recognized when OC competed in the NAIA.
The CoSIDA honor recognizes student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom and is considered one of the most prestigious in collegiate athletics. To qualify for the honor, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.3 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, have reached sophomore status athletically, have legitimate athletic credentials and have been at the nominating institution at least one calendar year.
For the 2019-20 academic year only, selections to the Academic All-District At-Large teams used career – instead of season – athletic accomplishments, as some winter and all spring sports (including golf) had their seasons either ended prematurely or cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Academic All-District awards are divided into eight geographic districts and four divisions. OC student-athletes compete for awards against their counterparts from other Division II schools. District 6 includes universities that are members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic and Lone Star Conferences – a total of 35 schools. Sports information directors from those universities vote for the Academic All-District team. OC competes in the LSC in all sports except men's and women's swimming, in which the university competes in the RMAC.
Sports that fall under the "At-Large" umbrella for CoSIDA award purposes are beach volleyball, bowling, lacrosse, rifle, crew, skiing, fencing, swimming, field hockey, tennis, golf, gymnastics, water polo and ice hockey. An OC swimmer, Andrew Assaleh, joined Brictson on the Academic All-District At-Large list.
Brictson, a Finance major, carries a 3.67 GPA and made the LSC's Academic All-Conference list this season. He made the Heartland Conference's Honor Roll in four previous semesters and in 2019, he received the Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award.
He's been sensational on the course, receiving honorable mention on the NCAA Division II All-America list for 2019-20, recording a win and four top-10 finishes in seven tournaments while posting a 72.68 scoring average. He has a career scoring average of 73.55 over 78 rounds.
Brictson has three collegiate wins, including the 2019 Heartland Conference Championship, and was a first-team all-conference selection in the Heartland (2019) and LSC (2020). Last summer, he qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship, one of only two active OC players ever to do so.
He now will advance to the ballot for the CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large team, which will be selected through a vote of sports information directors from NCAA Division II schools in the U.S. and Canada. That list will be announced in mid-June. Buccolo, in 2008, is the only OC golfer ever to be named to the Academic All-America list.
