JEREMY ASHCRAFT, MICHAEL PODOBNIK NAMED DON HANSEN FOOTBALL GAZETTE ALL-SOUTHEAST REGION SELECTIONS

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys Jeremy Ashcraft and Michael Podobnik have been named Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Southeast Region team selections released on Tuesday.

This marks the sixth year that Don Hansen Football Gazette has selected NCAA Division II All-Region team. The national publication has selected Division II All-America teams since 1988. The first and second-team All-Region selections advance to a national ballot from which the 2007 NCAA Division II Football Gazette All-America team will be selected.

Both Ashcraft and Podobnik are both Second-Team selections.

          Delta State leads all schools with 10 all-region selections, while North Alabama and Henderson State each had seven players on one of the three teams. The three All-Region teams included 40 players from GSC schools, including 22 on offense and 18 on defense.

          Ashcraft, a 6-foot-7, 335-pound offensive tackle from Dickinson, Texas, and a transfer from East Texas Baptist in Marshall, Texas, earned Second-Team honors on the offensive line after starting all 10 games for the Wonder Boys this past season and graded out at 89 percent. He finished the year with the fewest pressures and sacks given up on the team and recorded 27 knockdown blocks. Ashcraft was also named a Second-Team All-GSC selection.

Podobnik, a native of Frankfort, Ill., earns his fourth All-America honor of the season after a record-setting season for the Wonder Boys. This past season, Podobnik, who was a First-Team All-GSC selection as a punter and second-team selection as a kicker and was also named a First-Team Daktronics All-Southeast Region selection, led the GSC and NCAA Division II in punting with a 45.2 yard average per punt. In 10 games, he punted 43 times for 1,945 yards and had seven touchbacks and downed eight punts inside the 20-yard line. In addition, he had 13 punts over 50 yards, including a season-best 75-yard punt in the fourth quarter of Tech’s season opener at Northeastern State. Podobnik’s 45.2 yard average set a new single-season Tech and GSC mark. The previous Tech mark of 42.0 yards was set in 2003 by Tommy Edwards, while the old GSC mark of 43.5 yards was set in 1982 by Jacksonville State’s Greg Lowery. On the season, Podobnik was named the GSC Special Teams Player of the Week three times and was named the D2Football.com National Special Teams Player of the Week following the Harding game on Nov. 3. Against Harding, Podobnik averaged 52.5 yards on his four punts, which set a new Tech single-game record for punting average (51.0 was the previous record) and placed two punts inside the 20-yard line and boomed a 63-yard punt in the fourth quarter.

Already this season, Podobnik has been named an AP Little All-America, a Daktronics Division II All-American, an AFCA Division II Coaches’ All-American and a D2Football.com All-American. 

          Complete 2007 Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Southeast Region teams

 -- Tech Athletics --