CSC Academic All-District® Release
The College of Wooster's Jacob Fried, Luca Napora, Zach Napora, Jason Stewart, Max Wiley, and Takoda Zuehlke earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® honors for men's soccer, as announced by the organization on Tuesday afternoon.
Fried played in 15 games this fall, 12 of which were starts. The defender was part of five clean-sheet efforts, including against Denison University, where Wooster won 1-0 at Historic Crew Stadium to stay in contention for a spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament. Fried was part of two shutouts in conference play.
Luca Napora earned third-team All-NCAC laurels this fall as a defender. The senior started 12 games and appeared in all 17 contests. Napora scored two goals and assisted on two others. Napora helped the Scots to six clean sheets this fall. He scored in wins over Hiram College and Wabash College, with the win over the Little Giants marking the program's first since 2008.
The computer science major spent last summer as a developer and technical artist in a co-op program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. There, Napora led the development of a cutting-edge defibrillator simulation that was designed to enhance the training of nurses and doctors in life-saving techniques. Napora utilized Unity to create a user-friendly and realistic virtual environment, allowing medical trainees to practice and enhance their defibrillation procedures. Elsewhere, Napora was a database technician at 84.51 in Cincinnati and wrote a script to automate how to track inefficient and expensive job clusters on the cloud and helped calculate savings per month that using Unravel provided 84.51. In Boston, Napora was an intern with Seaside Sustainability and led the business team of Green Scholars, the organization's project-based learning curriculum for middle and high schools built on foundations of project management, leadership, and sustainability. Napora wrote an $8,000 grant proposal that was accepted and went towards the organization's digital educational programming. On campus, Napora writes for the student newspaper and is a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative.
Zach Napora, a senior forward from Cincinnati, was a regular starter for the Fighting Scots this fall. Napora finished the year with two goals and an assist. He scored the game-winning goal in a 2-0 win over Hiram on October 4 and had one of Wooster's six goals in a 6-0 rout over Heidelberg University on September 12.
Stewart, a two-time CSC Academic All-District® honoree and two-year starting defender, helped Wooster to six shutouts this fall. The senior did not miss a contest over the last two seasons.
For his Independent Study, Stewart is investigating the utility of using seven-substitute-quinolinones in organic synthesis. The chemistry major is exploring multiple different synthetic routes using varied synthetic techniques as part of the research project. At Pfizer, Stewart spent this summer optimizing the techniques to be used for a new stopped-flow NMR system to collect structure information during fast reactions and eventually thermodynamic data. He performed structural elucidation work using multiple NMR techniques and operated systems in an independent manner. Leading up to junior year, Stewart stayed on campus as a research assistant to Dr. Paul Bonvallet and examined the photophysical properties of novel hybrid porphyrin-natural product compounds. Stewart also conducted singlet oxygen quantum yield experiments, fluorescence quantum yield experiments, and a synthesis of novel porphyrin-natural product hybrid compounds. This research resulted in presentations at numerous conventions and a manuscript of the research findings is in process. Earlier as a student, Stewart conducted a chemical analysis of various organic materials that are critical components of Grip-Flex's most important product and provided data of the chemical processes that may take place during various stages of manufacturing.
Wiley, a third-team All-NCAC performer, led the team with five goals and 11 points. Wiley started 15 games and scored the lone goal in Wooster's 1-0 win over Baldwin Wallace University. He scored two times in conference play, including against Wabash, which Wooster beat for the first time since 2008. The three-year starter upped the career goal count to 15 and is now a two-time CSC Academic All-District® selection.
Wiley studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain as a sophomore and worked as a research intern for SurePeople. Wiley's research focused on project-based work supporting psychometric and assessment services and a case study published by Wiley resulted in newly developed learning styles assessments being implemented. The statistical and data sciences major is a mathematics tutor at Wooster High School and helped organize and lead Make-A-Wish fundraisers in eastern North Carolina.
Zuehlke was a key player for Wooster this fall, appearing in 16 games, eight of which were starts. The biochemistry and molecular biology major scored in Wooster's 6-0 win over Heidelberg and passed out the assist in the 1-0 win over Denison at Historic Crew Stadium.
Each school with a CSC membership may submit up to six Academic All-District® honorees for men's soccer. Each nominee must have at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA, be at least a sophomore in academic standing, and either play in 90 percent of games or start in 66 percent of games. The CSC Academic All-America® Team for men's soccer will be announced on December 19.