AUSTIN, Texas – Junior Shea Bechtel of the St. Olaf College men's soccer team was honored as the program's first College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American, as announced on Tuesday.

Bechtel was one of 34 NCAA Division III student-athletes from across the country to be named to one of the three Academic All-America ® teams and landed a spot on the second team. Tuesday's announcement made Bechtel St. Olaf's 18th Academic All-America honoree, with 10 of the 18 coming since 2019.

The Academic All-America ® teams were voted on by CSC members from a pool of Academic All-District ® honorees that a subcommittee advanced to the Academic All-America ® ballot. In order to be eligible, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale), and must have played in 90 percent of the institution's games or starting in at least 66 percent of the games.

The accolade was the latest in a long list of academic and/or athletic honors for Bechtel, who holds a 3.76 cumulative grade-point average as a quantitative economics major, following a standout junior season that ended in a national championship. Earlier this month, he was selected as a United Soccer Coaches First Team Scholar All-American and First Team Scholar All-North/Central Region honoree.

Bechtel was also named a United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-American and a United Soccer Coaches First Team All-Region IX honoree, while also earning his third consecutive all-conference accolade from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), after compiling 31 points on nine goals and 13 assists in 26 games this season. Despite being just a junior, Bechtel is already the program's all-time leader in career assists with 36 and is just two points shy of the all-time points record with 94.