Bonanno, Bulling Named Academic All-Americans
Hofstra senior wrestler Steve Bonanno and James Madison senior women's tennis player Katherine Bulling have been named to the 2013 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)-Capital One At-Large Academic All-America team.
Bonanno, who was honored on the men's at-large Academic All-America first team, earned his second Capital One Academic All-American honor after being named to the second team in 2012.
Bonanno’s latest accolade is the 11th time a Pride student-athlete has earned first team Academic All-America honors and the 30th time a Hofstra athlete has been named to the Academic All-America Team. He is the third Pride student-athlete to earn first team Academic All-America honors this year following Joe Burg in baseball and Olivia Galati in softball.
A Wantagh (NY) High School product, Bonanno is a two-time Colonial Athletic Association Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year having won the award in 2012 and 2013. He is also a three-time National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) All-Academic Team member, receiving the award from 2011 through 2013. Bonanno recorded one of the Top Five grade point averages on the 2013 NWCA All-Academic team.
Bonanno earned his undergraduate degree in accounting in May, 2012 but returned for the 2012-13 school year to begin work on a MBA degree and complete his final year of eligibility on the Pride Wrestling team. He has also been a Dean’s List member during every semester at Hofstra, a five-time CAA Commissioner's Academic Award recipient and a member of the Hofstra Athletics Academic Honor Roll his entire career.
On the mat, Bonanno, a 2012 NCAA All-American, reached the 125-pound finals at the CAA Championship all four years and was the CAA champion in 2012 and 2013. He had a 19-12 overall record in 2012-13 including a 12-9 mark in dual matches and a 6-0 record in the CAA. He captured his second CAA title at 125 pounds this past March, going 3-0 in the conference tournament and defeating the second seed Rob Deutsch from Old Dominion, 3-2 for the CAA title.
Bonanno, a four-time NCAA Championship qualifier, closed out his Hofstra career by winning 12 of his last 17 matches to finish with a 103-50 mark.
Bulling was selected as JMU's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row in 2013. She is a three-time International Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete and earned VaSID Academic All-State honors as a junior. In addition, the history and English double-major has been on the President’s List each year of her collegiate career. The Loveland, Ohio-native also published her research on the formation of slave religion in Appalachian State’s May 2012 issue of History Matters: An Undergraduate Journal of Historical Research.
On the courts this year, Bulling went 18-8 in singles matches overall and finished her career with a 66-39 (.629) overall record. She received third-team All-CAA honors in singles this season.
She also had a strong year in doubles, earning second-team All-CAA accolades with partner Cara Wirth. The duo posted an 18-8 overall record, playing mostly at the No. 2 position.
The CoSIDA-Capital One At-Large Academic All-America Team can include student-athletes from bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.