UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Following his historic season for the Saginaw Valley State University track & field team, Sam Black added another honor to his long list of accomplishments as a Cardinal.

The College Sports Information Directors of America named Black to the 2021 CoSIDA NCAA DII Men's Track & Field Academic All-American First Team, it was announced Wednesday.

Student-athletes are nominated for the CoSIDA Academic All-American awards by a CoSIDA member at their institution. Unlike other academic honors, CoSIDA Academic All-American voters consider both performances in competition and in the classroom. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. Nominees must have been enrolled for at least one calendar year and have achieved sophomore-academic standing at the time of nomination.

The honor is the second for Black in his career after taking a second-team honor in 2019-20.

Black won the 2021 NCAA DII Outdoor men's decathlon national title and earned a spot at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials earlier this year.