May 4, 2012

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Four Atlantic 10 Baseball student-athletes were recently named to their respective CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District teams, including Charlotte’s Shane Basen (District 3), La Salle’s Pat Christensen and Adam Kammler (District 2), along with Marco DiRoma of Saint Louis (District 6). First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All-America® Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.

Basen sports a 3.96 grade point average in accounting, in addition to leading the 49ers with 40 RBI and an Atlantic 10 Conference-leading five triples. He is the reigning league Player of the Week, his second such award this season, after driving in 12 runs last weekend against George Washington. He has been on the Chancellor’s List in all five semesters at Charlotte and earned Academic All-Conference in 2011. He has started all but one game at third base for Charlotte in the past two seasons.

Basen becomes the fifth Charlotte baseball player on the list, joining Mike Ambrose, Rob Lyerly, Ryan Rivers and Cory Tilton. He advances to the national ballot, with Ambrose earned Charlotte’s only Academic All-America Honors in team history.

Christensen, La Salle’s all-time saves leader with 32, is 4-2 with a 2.92 ERA and eight saves this season. The junior has played a part in 12 of La Salle’s 17 wins and ranks third in the A-10 in saves. He has also been named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch Lists the past two seasons. The La Jolla, Calif., native was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 and All-Mid Atlantic Region last season as a sophomore. He was 3-2 with a 1.17 ERA in 2010. Christensen owns a 3.60 grade point average as a business administration major.

Kammler has started 29 games behind the plate and is batting .255 with a home run and 14 RBI. He is 17th in the nation in hit by pitches with 15 and sports a .435 on-base percentage. The Pennridge graduate’s biggest hit of the season came in the 12th inning at Fordham when his solo home run broke a 1-1 tie to give La Salle the victory. An integrated science, business and technology major, the senior has a 3.52 grade point average.

La Salle’s pair join Brendan Norton (2010, 2011) as Explorers who have earned Academic All-District honors under head coach Mike Lake.

DiRoma is currently hitting .300 with a team-best .444 on-base percentage and a .433 slugging percentage. He also leads the Bills in triples with three and stolen bases with 10. In the classroom, DiRoma maintains a 3.35 GPA in his major of communication. He is one of eight designated hitters to earn Academic All-District honors. He is the first Billiken to receive such accolades since Ryan Bennett in 2009. Bennett later received Academic All-American plaudits. The 2012 Capital One Academic All-District Baseball Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), have been released to recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. Capital One became the entitlement rights holder to CoSIDA’s Academic All-America teams programs in 2011.

The Academic All-District teams are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. This is the first year of the expanded Academic All-America® program as CoSIDA moves from recognizing a University Division (Division I) and a College Division (all non-Division I) and doubles the number of scholar-athletes honored. The teams include NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools.

The Capital One Division II and III Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II and III national governance structures, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2011-12 DII and DIII Academic All-America® teams program.

About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., had $122.2 billion in deposits and $197.5 billion in total assets outstanding as of December 31, 2010. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. Capital One, N.A. has approximately 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the 2001 Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) and ESPN’s Capital One Bowl Week. In 2010, Capital One launched the Capital One Cup, a prestigious new program rewarding NCAA Division I athletics programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men’s and women’s sports. In addition, Capital One sponsors the ABC College Football Halftime Report, Capital One All-America Mascot Team, all 88 NCAA Championships including the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, and numerous other collegiate athletics programs.