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| Dan Gail |
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| Harry Witwer-Dukes |
CoSIDA Academic All-District® Release
Seniors Dan Gail and Harry Witwer-Dukes of The College of Wooster baseball team were voted to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District® Team, as announced by the national organization on Thursday. They'll now be placed on the ballot for Academic All-America® consideration.
Gail, a cum laude graduate, was having an All-America-caliber season in 2020. In seven games, the Fighting Scots' catcher went 9-for-20 with 10 RBI, seven runs, four walks, and a homer. The Euclid, Ohio, native sported a .332 average (98-for-295) over his career, and logged 79 runs, 76 RBI, 27 doubles, 10 homers, and a .420 on-base percentage. The 2.5-year starter saw his first significant action as a sophomore, where he provided an immediate boost to Wooster's potent lineup en route to the Scots making their sixth appearance in the NCAA Div. III World Series. That year, Gail hit .362 (38-for-105) with 36 runs, 26 RBI and 10 doubles, despite not earning a steady starting role until midway through the season.
Off the diamond, the biochemistry and molecular biology alumnus' Independent Study (I.S.) project focused on the mechanism in which Caenorhabditis elegans is infected by Pseudomonas bacteria, and if apoptosis is used in the innate immune response against that infection. He was part of the Community Care Network, a partnership between the College and Wooster Community Hospital, where students visit patients on a weekly basis and assist them with their health goals, with a focus on meaningful behavioral changes that become a part of a patient's life.
Witwer-Dukes' junior year marked the Monmouth, Oregon, native's breakout year. The communication studies alumnus earned first-team All-America honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association and second-team All-America laurels from D3baseball.com. He ranked third on the team with a .390 average (64-for-164), while his 56 RBI were 13th nationally. Witwer-Dukes was one of the key reasons the Scots won the Wooster Regional. There, he was 11-for-19 with 11 RBI, six runs, and four extra-base hits over a five-game stretch. For his career, the utility star hit .387 (98-for-253) with 76 RBI, 73 runs, 21 doubles, and 11 homers.
Witwer-Dukes' I.S. explored the digital media framing of concussions in the National Football League using the Health Belief Model and Extended Parallel Process Model. Elsewhere on campus, Witwer-Dukes served as a presentation coach in APEX, the College's center for Advising, Planning, and Experiential Learning, and was a teaching assistant in first-year seminar courses.
Gail, Witwer-Dukes, and their senior teammates helped the Scots make three NCAA appearances (including the World Series in 2018), win three North Coast Athletic Conference titles, and post a 110-39 record.
Within NCAA Div. III District 7 (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio), just 11 student-athletes were honored by CoSIDA.