MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia sophomore JJ Wetherholt has been named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America first team.
A finance major, Wetherholt has a 3.87 GPA in the classroom to go along with his long list of accomplishments on the field.
The Mars, Pennsylvania native is just the fourth player in program history to be named an Academic All-American and the first since Lee Fritz was a first teamer in 2005. Other Mountaineers include Josh Williamson (1997, 3rd Team) and Matt Schubert (1991, 1st Team; 1992, 2nd Team).
Overall, Wetherholt is the 130th WVU student-athlete across all sports to be named an Academic All-American and the 48th to land on the first team.
He is also the only sophomore to be named on the first team this year and one of just three across all three teams.
On the field this season, Wetherholt put up the greatest offensive season in WVU history as he hit a nation-leading .449 with 16 home runs, 22 doubles, three triples, 60 RBI, 67 runs scored, and 36 stolen bases. He was named Big 12 Player of the Year and to the All-Big 12 first team while also being a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy.
Wetherholt finished the season with 101 hits to match Tyler Kuhn’s program record set in 2008. In addition, his .449 batting average is the highest by a Power Five player since Buster Posey hit .463 for Florida State in 2008 and is 17 points higher than Dylan Crews of LSU, the highest among players still left in the NCAA Tournament, meaning it is likely that Wetherholt will become the first Mountaineer to ever lead the nation in batting.