Mark Koontz Named Second-Team Academic All-America

Story Links

June 11, 2002

Charlottesville, Va. – University of Virginia lacrosse player Mark Koontz was selected to the 15-man second-team Verizon Academic All-America Men’s At-Large squad announced today. He is one of four lacrosse players named to the second team. The Academic All-America at-large teams are comprised of athletes in sports other than baseball, basketball, football, soccer and track.

Other lacrosse players joining Koontz on the second team are Emil Bove of Albany, P.J. Diconza from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown’s Steve Dusseau. Both Koontz and Dusseau attended Upper Arlington High School in Ohio.

A native of Upper Arlington, Ohio, Koontz posted a 3.45 GPA and graduated last month from the McIntire School of Commerce with a concentration in finance. He has accepted a position with the Wall Street investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

This is the second academic award Koontz has received recently. He was named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Scholar All-American team at the USILA’s All-American banquet last weekend in Baltimore. He was also honored as a second-team All-American at the banquet, the third year in a row he was named first- or second-team All-American.

Koontz played with a cast to protect a wrist broken during offseason conditioning, but he didn’t let that affect his play this spring. He consistently shut down the opposition’s top attackman and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, the first defenseman to win the league’s highest honor since 1992.

His season came to a premature end after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a win over Duke on April 13. He returned six days later and played without incident in UVa’s win over North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. In the finals against Duke on April 21, he aggravated his injury and underwent reconstructive surgery on the knee. His injury caused him to miss the remainder of the season as the Cavaliers posted an 11-4 record and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Syracuse 12-11 in double overtime.