Four Earn CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large Awards

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Four Carnegie Mellon University athletes were honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as At-Large Academic All-District selections. Two golfers were selected to the men's team, senior Jason Li (Sewickley, Pa./Sewickley Academy) and junior William Knauth (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport Area), while junior Lindy Cornwall (Poway, Calif. / Poway) from tennis and sophomore Michelle Cao (Johns Creek, Ga./Northview) from golf were selected to the women's team. The honor is the first for each of the four.

All four will represent District 4, comprised of all the Division III schools in Pennsylvania, on the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration. To be eligible for the award, athletes must be starters or significant reserves in at least their sophomore season and carry a minimum GPA of 3.30.

Cornwall, a 2021 All-American in both singles and doubles play, finished the season with an 11-4 singles record and a national ranking of 13. She competed in the NCAA singles and doubles tournament for the first time. Cornwall paired with sophomore Bin Zheng for a 12-4 record in doubles action this past season. The duo defeated the number two seed in the round of 16 at the NCAA doubles tournament before falling in the quarterfinals. Cornwall and Zheng finished as the fourth-ranked pair nationally. The rising senior has 72 career wins in 100 matches played.

In the classroom, Cornwall carries a 3.93 in mechanical engineering. She interned for Herrick Technology Labs, is a mentor for Strong Women Strong Girls, Vice President for Pi Tau Sigma and is an orientation and summer camp counselor at Carnegie Mellon. Cornwall competed for the Tartan track and field team as a freshman and set the school record in the discus. She is also a member of the club fencing team at Carnegie Mellon.

Cao was honored as honorable mention All-American following the Tartans runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships which was the highest national finish for any team sport in school history. Cao finished third on the team with an average of 77.8 in nine rounds of play and placed 11th at the NCAA Championships with a 72-hole score of 311. She recorded two top-ten finishes this season and carded a career-best round of two-over par 74 during the final round of the Montgomery Country Club Women's Intercollegiate were she placed ninth. Her other top-ten finish came at the 2021 Golfweek DIII Spring Invitational were she tied Simpson for 10th with a 239.

She has twice been named a Women's Golf Coaches Association All-America Scholar and holds a 3.94 GPA as an art major. Coa is a member of Scotch n' Soda Theatre and is currently working to establish an animation club at Carnegie Mellon.

Li, a two-time finalist for the NCAA Division III Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award and University Athletic Association (UAA) Golfer of the Year, also is a four-time All-UAA selection and three-time PING All-American. Li finished the season with a team-best average round of 72.1 through 14 rounds. In seven of his 14 rounds, the senior shot even-par or lower. Li has recorded three top three-finishes this season and claimed his first collegiate individual medalist honors after carding a two-under par 214 at the 54-hole Golfweek Spring Invitational. He placed eighth at the NCAA Championships after carding the second lowest 72-hole score in program history of 291.

The 2021 graduate with a degree in business administration finished with a 3.57 GPA. Li was a Marketing Insights Intern at Santander Bank US as well as a Tournament Business Affairs Intern at PGA TOUR. Throughout his four years at Carnegie Mellon, he was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and volunteered for Special Olympics and First Tee of Pittsburgh.

The men's golf team, which placed fourth at the 2021 NCAA Championships, saw Knauth with the second lowest individual average of 73.5 over 14 rounds. In five of his round he carded even-par or lower and recorded a collegiate-best round of five-under par 67 during the opening round of the Jekyll Island Invitational which tied the second best 18-hole round in program history. The junior recorded the fourth best 72-hole program score of 298 at the NCAA Championships to place 28th overall.

Knauth, a 2021 PING All-American, is working on a dual degree in physics and mathematical sciences while carrying a 3.92 GPA. The rising senior has been a Corporate Model Risk Intern for Wells Fargo the last two summers. Knauth has been conducting new research in machine learning and artificial intelligence, specifically in interpretability, robustness and model simplification without sacrificing performance and has wrote two academic journal articles on the topic with a patent application submitted. He has an award-nominated project in computer science "StrategyGolf," which uses advanced mutually recursive algorithms to predict expected strokes to hole out from any point on a golf course. Knuath also is a teacher assistant for multiple classes at Carnegie Mellon.