Pollard Named to CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team

AMES, Iowa – Thomas Pollard added one final accolade to his Iowa State student-athlete career on Wednesday when he was named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American. Pollard was also named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors Association in 2020, making the Third Team.

Pollard is the 19th student-athlete in Iowa State Athletics history to be named to an Academic All-America Team at least twice and is the first male track and field/cross country student-athlete to earn multiple Academic All-America honors. This is the second Academic All-America honor in as many days for Iowa State's track and field/cross country program, as Cailie Logue was named to the women's First Team yesterday.

Pollard had a busy final year in competition for the Cyclones. In the fall in cross country, Pollard earned his first career All-American accolade with his 21st place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, helping lead the Iowa State men to a second place team finish, the fifth top-two team finish for ISU in program history and the best since 1994. He also became the first student-athlete in Big 12 history to earn five All-Big 12 honors in cross country and for the third time was named the Big 12 Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

During the indoor track and field season, Pollard earned a bronze medal in the 5,000m run at the Big 12 Championships in Ames while posting new personal bests in the 3,000m (7:54.37) and the 5,000m (13:38.82). Outdoors, Pollard collected a bronze medal in the 10,000m run at the conference championships, qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminaries in the event. At the Stanford Invitational in April, Pollard ran to a 10K personal best of 28:23.19.

Pollard, who is in graduate school for Information Systems & Business Analytics, has maintained a 4.00 GPA across his academic career at Iowa State and was named Academic All-Big 12 in cross country five times and track and field on four occasions.