Tiger Garcia Earns Second Straight Academic All-America Nod
Dec 9, 2019, 11:53 AM | Updated: 11:54 am
DAVIS, Calif. — UC Davis senior managerial economics and team co-captain Tiger Garcia earned Academic All-America® second-team honors for the second straight season, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced on Monday.
Garcia becomes the first UC Davis student-athlete to win the honor back-to-back since distance runner Trevor Halsted achieved the feat in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Gymnast Katie Yamamura was the last Aggie to earn second-team distinction in consecutive years (2012 and 2013). Garcia joined Ryan Parenteau on the Academic All-America® rolls in 2018.
The Moraga, California, product started seven of the team’s 11 games in 2019, totaling 49 tackles with a forced fumble, a pass breakup and 1.5 tackles for losses of two years. Additionally, Garcia proved so knowledgeable of the Aggie defense that he was included on the travel squad during the team’s trip to San Diego early in the season, even though he was sidelined by injury at the time.
To be nominated for the Academic All-America® program, a student-athlete must be a starter or key reserve with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 or higher. The nomination pool is then pared down to Academic All-District teams – for which Garcia has been selected three times – then the first-team All-District winners are reduced to a single All-America team.
Garcia will graduate later this month with a 3.92 GPA in managerial economics.
