Franz Earns Academic All-District First Team Honors
5/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 22, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Senior Sandy Franz (Duesseldorf, Germany/Berufskolleg Hilden) became the first male athlete at USC Upstate to earn CoSIDA/ESPN: The Magazine Academic All-District honors, CoSIDA announced on Thursday afternoon as Franz earned First Team All-District 3 Men's At-Large honors in the University Division. The at-large category honors athletes from multiple sports, including golf, tennis, lacrosse, rifle, swimming & diving and field hockey.
Franz will now be placed in the pool for Academic All-America honors, competing against the other first team selections in eight districts. The ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America program was put in place by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) to honor those student-athletes who excel in athletics and in the classroom. Franz earned First Team All-District honors on the University Division in District 3, which consists of all NCAA Division I institutions in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Virginia.
Franz joins fellow senior tennis player, Diana Martinez (Medellin, Colombia/Nuestra Senora del Rosario) as the first athletes in Upstate history to earn two Academic All-District honors in their careers. Franz was a Second Team All-District 3 College Division selection as a junior while Martinez earned first team honors en route to a Second Team Academic All-America selection.
Franz is one of just two athletes from the Atlantic Sun Conference, along with Mercer's golfer Andrew An, on the team and the only male athlete from South Carolina honored on the District 3 team. Franz and Martinez join Luke Payne (Spartanburg, S.C./Spartanburg), a men's basketball player, as the second and third Upstate athletes to earn Academic All-District First Team honors this season. Softball player Vanessa Flores (Chino, Calif./Mt. San Antonio College) was a second-team selection.
USC Upstate is one of only three Division I schools in South Carolina that has posted two First Team Academic All-District selections this year along with Wofford, Furman and USC, all of whom had two football selections. Upstate also is currently tied for the lead amongst all A-Sun schools with four overall Academic All-District selections with Mercer.
Franz, an All-Atlantic Sun Conference First Team selection, led the men's tennis team into the Division I era with a distinctive flare. The Marketing major with a 3.90 GPA led the Spartans to a 15-6 overall record and an 8-2 mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference, good for a third-place finish and the team's eighth straight season with 10 or more wins.
He finished the season 19-12 in singles play for the Spartans, playing in the No. 1 singles slot and added an 18-13 mark in doubles play. The 37 combined wins were ninth in school history. Although he had to fight injuries throughout the spring to his shoulder and his ankle, Franz had one of the most memorable falls in school history, helping him earn the school's first Division I national singles ranking, beginning the spring 96th in the ITA rankings. In the fall, Franz defeated two players ranked in the nation's top 100 in the ITA rankings and won tournament singles titles at the USC Fall Invitational (`A' Flight) and the USC Upstate Fall Tennis Tournament (`A' Flight). He also won a doubles title with Airaldi at the Upstate Fall Tournament as well and advanced to the doubles semifinals at the ITA Mideast Regionals.
Franz was a member of the All-Peach Belt Conference team in 2007. He finishes his career ninth in singles wins with 44, sixth in doubles wins with 45 and fifth in combined wins with 99.
