The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference

Worcester, MA --- WPI men's soccer midfielder Ben Gilde has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America second team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA). A year ago, Gilde was the only sophomore to garner third team All-America honors.

Gilde sports a 3.87 GPA while majoring in Actuarial Mathematics and minoring in Management and Spanish He was honored with the Charles O. Thompson award for outstanding academic success at WPI as a freshman. This past spring as a sophomore, Gilde took home the Leo S. Jansson Award, who best exemplifies the high standards expressed in "The WPI Athlete."

This season Gilde led the Engineers in goals (4), assists (4) and points (12). The Crimson and Gray finished with a 3-13-1 record but tied second-seeded Babson 1-1 in the first round of the NEWMAC Tournament before the Beavers advanced on penalty kicks. Gilde garnered all-NEWMAC honors for the second straight year and was selected to the all-conference academic team along with three teammates. Prior to being named All-America, he has been an All-District first team selection each of the past two seasons.

Gilde, a junior who hails from Manchester, NH, is the son Walter and Helen Gilde. He played scholastically for head coach Chris Leberge at Manchester Central while being home schooled. He will be spending next term in Melbourne, Australia working with the Victoria Zoo to help develop an education program for students visiting the zoo.

Ben Gilde Selected Second-Team ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America