Four Bears Earn Academic All-District Honors

GREENWOOD, Ind. – Mercer football's Tee Mitchell, Thomas Marchman, Caleb Yates and Dorian Kithcart were named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District IV First Team, as announced by the organization Thursday afternoon.

Mercer was the only program to place four student-athletes on the All-District IV First Team, which pulls from NCAA Division I FBS and FCS programs located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Mercer also had at least two more selections than any other Southern Conference school; Wofford (two selections), Furman (one selection) and The Citadel (one selection) placed student-athletes on the All-District IV First Team as well.

Mitchell, a former CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team selection (2015), leads Mercer with 569 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns this season. He was named SoCon Student-Athlete of the Week earlier this fall (Oct. 21) and ranks third in program history with 1,918 career rushing yards. Mitchell is an international business major.

Senior offensive linemen Thomas Marchman (chemical commerce) and Caleb Yates (biomedical engineering) have helped Mercer average 27 points and 349.5 yards of total offense per game this season. Marchman and Yates, who have started each game this season at left tackle and right guard, respectively, have also powered Mercer to a FCS-leading red zone offense (94.1 percent). Marchman was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District IV First Team in 2015.

Kithcart, a junior mechanical engineering major, has started all 10 games at nose guard for Mercer this fall. He has totaled 22 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and one fumble recovery while playing a critical role on a defensive unit that leads the SoCon in scoring defense and ranks 13th nationally in red zone defense.

A student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average at his/her current institution to be nominated. First-Team Academic All-District honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be announced in December.

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2017 CoSIDA Academic All-District IV First Team

Pos.	Name	School	Yr.	Major
QB	Chandler Burks	Kennesaw State	Jr.	Sport Management
RB	Jamal Adjamah	Jacksonville	Jr.	Kinesiology
RB	*Tee Mitchell*	*Mercer*	*Jr.*	*International Business*
WR	Braxton Berrios	Miami (Fla.)	Sr.	Finance/Entrepreneurship
WR	Jared Jackson	Florida State	Sr.	Entrepreneurship
TE	Andy Schumpert	Furman	Sr.	Accounting
OL	Jared Jacon-Duffy	Wofford	Sr.	Physics/Mathematics
OL	*Thomas Marchman*	*Mercer*	*Sr.*	*Chemical Commerce*
OL	Gabe Mobley	Georgia State	Gr.	History (UG) / Law School (G)
OL	Jonah Williams	Alabama	So.	Marketing
OL	*Caleb Yates*	*Mercer*	*Sr.*	*Biomedical Engineering*
K	Rodrigo Blankenship	Georgia	Jr.	Digital & Broadcast Journalism
ST	Tyler Stovall	Auburn	Gr.	Business Marketing (UG) / MBA (G)
DL	Seth Calloway	Troy	Gr.	Criminal Justice
DL	*Dorian Kithcart*	*Mercer*	*Jr.*	*Mechanical Engineering*
DL	Julien Laurent	Georgia State	Sr.	Speech
DL	Christian Wilkins	Clemson	Sr.	Communications
LB	Keith Holcombe	Alabama	Sr.	Exercise Science
LB	Myles Pierce	The Citadel	Sr.	Accounting
LB	Richard Stanzione	Stetson	So.	Physics
LB	Trevor Tufano	Jacksonville	So.	Undeclared
DB	James Allen	Charleston Southern	Jr.	Criminal Justice
DB	Aaron Davis	Georgia	Gr.	Finance (UG) / Computer Science (G)
DB	Malik Rivera	Wofford	Sr.	Math, Finance & Computer Science
DB	Chandon Sullivan	Georgia State	Sr.	Journalism

Players Mentioned

Dorian Kithcart

Thomas Marchman

Tee Mitchell

Caleb Yates

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