Nov. 11, 2005

BALTIMORE, MD -- The Johns Hopkins University football team, which will close the regular season at McDaniel Saturday afternoon with a chance to win its first outright Centennial Conference Championship, had six players named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine District II Academic All-America Football Team it was announced today. No other school had more than five players named to the team and Hopkins accounted for six of the Centennial Conference's 11 players on the team. The six selections give the Johns Hopkins football program 19 District II Academic All-Americans in the last three years.

Among the six players selected were four who earned first team honors. Senior linebacker Max Whitacre (Sugarloaf, PA/Bishop Hafey), senior safety Jim Sanders (North Lima, OH/South Range), senior running back T.J. Lyons (Paramus, NJ/Paramus) and junior defensive lineman Brian Nickel (Waupun, WI/Waupun) were the four Blue Jays named to the first team, while senior linebacker Mike Aynardi (Wyomissing, PA/Wilson) and senior cornerback Adam Colicchio (Martinsville, NJ/Immaculata) garnered second team honors. Each of the four first team selections will now go on the ballot for national Academic All-America honors.

Whitacre is majoring in economics and boasts a 3.59 cumulative grade point average and is a repeat selection to the first team. He currently has 36 tackles, including 2.5 for losses and one sack, one pass breakup and four blocked kicks (three punts / 1 field goal) to his credit this season. His 216 career tackles are the most of any active player on the team. Whitacre was an Honorable Mention All-Centennial selection as a sophomore and a Second Team All-CC pick last season. He has served as a mentor for the last 18 months as a local treatment facility for kids with behavioral and social disorders and completed an internship with Alcoa Kama, a polymerization and sheet extrusion corporation.

Sanders is in his first season as a full-time starter at safety and has a career-high 51 tackles and ranks second on the team in pass breakups (5). He notched his 100th career tackle in last week's game against Hampden-Sydney and was named to the AFCA's Good Works Team earlier this season. Sanders completed an internship during the summer of 2004 working with inner-city, underprivileged kids in Baltimore City. He is majoring in biomedical engineering and has a 3.42 cumulative GPA and was a Second Team District II Academic All-America last season.

Lyons is making his first appearance on the team and is enjoying the most productive season of his career. He has rushed for a career-high 770 yards and seven touchdowns and has 14 receptions for 117 yards to his credit this season. He ranks second in the Centennial Conference in rushing yards per game (85.6) and third in all-purpose yards (98.6). He has worked at the Johns Hopkins Summer Sports Day Camp each of the last two summers and has a 3.29 cumulative grade point average as a political science major.

Nickel rounds out JHU's First Team District II Academic All-Americans as he makes the jump up from the second team. He has started all nine games and has 48 tackles, nine tackles for losses and four sacks on the year. He ranks second on the team in tackles for losses and fourth in sacks and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the College Republicans and is the host of the Greek Christian Fellowship. Nickel is majoring in natural sciences (Pre. Med.) and has a 3.61 cumulative grade point average.

Aynardi earns Second Team District II Academic All-America honors for the third consecutive year. He ranks seventh on the team in tackles (41) and has four pass breakups (third on the team), one fumble recovery and one tackle for loss. Aynardi is majoring in natural sciences, boasts a 3.59 cumulative GPA and has worked at Reading Hospital in the Emergency Room (Orthopedic Team) during the last two summers. He has also served as a mentor for the last 18 months as a local treatment facility for kids with behavioral and social disorders.

Colicchio is also making his first appearance on the team as he fashions a 3.34 cumulative grade point average and is majoring in economics. He has 37 tackles, team-highs of three interceptions and eight pass breakups and one forced fumble to his credit. Colicchio tied his career-high with 10 tackles in last week's game against Hampden-Sydney and now has 93 career tackles. He has served as a mentor for the last 18 months as a local treatment facility for kids with behavioral and social disorders and completed an internship with the State Department (Department of Counterterrorism).

The District II region includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Athletes named to the first team qualify for the national ballot, with the national team due to be announced on December 1. To be nominated for the CoSIDA Academic All-America program, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 or higher cumulative grade point average and be a starter or significant reserve.

Johns Hopkins currently boasts a 7-2 overall record, including a 4-1 mark in the Centennial Conference. The Blue Jays have already secured the Centennial's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Playoffs and will learn who they will play, where and when on Sunday at 1:00 pm when the NCAA Division III Football Playoff bracket is announced on ESPNews.

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