Nick Gravina earns record-setting fourth All-Academic Big Ten recognition

For the fourth year, Nick Gravina has been named an All Academic Big Ten athlete.

He is joined by five other Scarlet Knight grapplers named a 2018 Winter Academic All-Big Ten selection, joining Brett Donner (Exercise Science and Sports Studies), Jordan Pagano (Psychology), John Van Brill (Human Resource Management) and Michael Van Brill (Human Resource Management).

Gravina is a redshirt senior, but was granted a sixth year of eligibility. He has maintained over a 3.00 GPA in each of the past four seasons. Gravina has already earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and is working towards a master’s degree in counseling psychology.

“Nick is everything you would ever want in a student-athlete,” said head coach Scott Goodale. “He does everything right, works hard both in the classroom and on the mat, and is a tremendous student-athlete.”

Gravina is a three-time NCAA qualifier and picked up two wins last week at the 2018 NCAA Championships in Cleveland. He also had three wins at the 2018 Big Ten Championships earlier this month, closing out the regular season with a 14-3 record, which included a 6-1 mark in Big Ten dual action and victories over two top-10 opponents in No. 7 Taylor Venz (Nebraska) and No. 9 Ricky Robertson (Wisconsin).

And now the opinion part of this post....

Way to go, Nick! This is not just a really good wrestler, this is a really good person. At some event back in the fall, Nick met my five-year old grandson, and the two of them had a great conversation about WWE and action figures. How many college kids do that? Nick did.

Want to give Nick a well-deserved pat on the back? Sure, you can comment below, but better yet, do this: Today is Rutgers Giving Day. Go to the link here and make a donation to Rutgers Wrestling. Or go to this link and donate to any area of Rutgers that you’d like.

We need more athletes like Nick Gravina. Supporting Rutgers makes sure we get them.