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WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Senior thrower Michael Kandolin (Columbia, Conn./Windham) of the New Haven track and filed team has been named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team for track and field, as announced on Tuesday. The honor recognizes the nation's top student athletes for their performances both on the court and in the classroom. Award winners are selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America.
As a First Team honoree, Kandolin will now advance to the Academic All-America ballot. He was joined by six other track and field student-athletes from the NE10 on the 10-member team in District 1.
Kandolin graduated from the University last week with a bachelor's degree in finance and economics, holding a cumulative GPA of 3.71. During the 2018-19 indoor season, he earned the fifth Academic All-Northeast 10 Conference nod of his career, and his first NE10 Sport Excellence award. He is also a New Haven Distinguished Scholar honoree and has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll.
The senior from Columbia, Connecticut finishes his career as the school's record holder in the weight throw, hammer throw and discus. This spring, he won the hammer throw in four of his seven meets, which culminated with his first-career berth to the NCAA Championships, where he placed 23rd overall. He opened the outdoor season with a 53.72 meter toss at the VCU Ram Invite in March. He then threw 59.28 meters to win the Jim Sheehan Memorial Invite, which eclipsed the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 55.08m.
Kandolin won his second career indoor NE10 title in the weight throw with a toss of 18.21 meters. Kandolin reset the school's weight throw record on multiple occasions this past indoor season, topping out at February's Last Chance Qualifier in Boston at 18.29 meters. The toss hit a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and was the top throw in the NE10 and the NCAA East Region by 20 centimeters this season. He also ranked 18th in the NE10 in the shot put (13.01m). He won the NE10 title in the weight throw at this year's NE10 Indoor Championships.
On April 20, he became the first New Haven athlete in program history to eclipse to 60-meter plateau in the hammer throw, setting a new school record with his season-high 60.58 meter toss to win the Mark Young Invitational. This mark was the top throw in the NE10 and the NCAA East Region this season. The very same day, he also broke his own school record in the discus at 49.15 meters.
Prior to this outdoor season, Kandolin won the NE10 title in the hammer throw in 2017 and 2018, and was the runner-up in the discus in 2018.
