Four Polar Bears named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV in Football

Rick Ingold

By Tim Glon

ADA — Four Ohio Northern student/athletes were named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IVin football for 2009 in voting conducted by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Senior offensive lineman Rick Ingold (Newark) was a First Team selection, while junior quarterback Kyle Simmons (Orrville), junior defensive back Eric Wenzler (Springboro) and junior H-Back Evan Elliott (Green) were Second Team picks.

By being a First Team honoree, Ingold is now on the Academic All-Ameirca ballot.

Ingold is a three-year starter at left guard for the Polar Bears. He earned Second Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors in 2008.

Simmons is also a three-year starter at quarterback. This season, he has thrown for 1,463 yards and 14 TDs andhad rushed for 320 yards and seven TDs.

He currently ranks second all-time at ONU with a .578 career competion percentage, is eighth with 3,126 career passing yards and is second all-time among quarterbacks with 545 career rushing yards.

Wenzler is a fourth-year junior nd has started 25 games at corner back in his career. This season, he has 35 tackles, two interceptions and 4 passes broken up.

In his career, Wenzler has 111 tackles, six interceptions and 13 PBUs.

He was named Second Team Academic All-District in 2007 and was an Honorable Mention Academic All-OAC selection in 2008.

Elliott has started all eighth games at H-Back this season for ONU in his first year as a starter. He has caught four passes for 15 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The No. 17-ranked Polar Bears (6-2 overall, 5-2 OAC) will travel to No. 13-ranked Capital for a battle of nationally-ranked programs on Saturday at 1:30 pm at Bernlohr Stadium.