Shenendoah, TX - In an offseason where his awards just seem to grow in magnitude as time goes on, junior kicker Maki Medici (Watervliet, NY/Shaker) of the Utica College football team has earned his biggest honor yet. D3Football.com has selected Medici as a 2019 honorable mention All-American. The honor was released by the national website on Friday as part of its pregame coverage of the Division III national championship game.
The award is among the most prestigious in college football. D3Football.com began awarding All-American honors in 1999. The D3Football.com All-America teams are one of only two Division III All-American team programs to be formally recognized by the NCAA record books, alongside the awards given by the American Football Coaches' Association. Over 1,000 players are nominated each year at the All-Region level, which doubles as the All-America nomination process once the All-Region teams are selected.
Medici's All-American eligibility was established when he was named to the D3Football.com All-East Region first team. He is also the Empire 8 Special Teams Player of the Year, a double All-Conference selection as a kicker and punter, a second team All-ECAC honoree, and was also named to the D3football.com national Team of the Week earlier this season.
Medici is a first time All-American, and becomes the fifth player in program history to be named a D3Football.com postseason All-American. He joins wide receiver Jeremy Meier (2012), tackle Zach Hunnewell (2014), and defensive lineman Nick Woodman (2015), and becomes the second Pioneer kicker to earn an D3Football.com All-American honor alongside Thomas Woodburn (2015). Medici is also the program's sixth overall postseason All-American, as versatile offensive player and Pioneer Hall of Famer Jeff Muha was named an All-American by Don Hansen's Football Gazette in 2005.
Medici is also one of four Empire 8 players to be honored, alongside two players from Alfred, and one from Brockport. Medici was instrumental in helping Utica neutralize Alfred's defensive unit earlier this season. He kicked four field goals to help the Pioneers pull away from the Saxons in a 19-10 Empire 8 win. One of his four conversions that day went for a career long of 48 yards. That 48 yard conversion was the longest in the Empire 8 this season, and the second longest in school history.
The junior kicker went 15-of-19 on field goal attempts this season, and was 13-of-14 on attempts inside 40 yards. He converted 78.9 percent of his field goal opportunities. He did not miss a field goal inside of 40 yards in the first nine games of the season. He also succeeded on 31-of-35 extra point tries.
Medici ranks second in the nation in field goals per game at 1.50 field goals per game. He had the fourth-best field goal percentage for a single season in program history, and the second best among kickers with more than 10 attempts. He led the conference in field goals made, field goals attempted, and field goal percentage. He was also fifteenth nationally in field goal percentage.
He is second in career field goals and extra points at Utica, and trails Thomas Woodburn in both categories with one season of eligibility remaining. He has made 34 field goals over the course of his career. Medici and Woodburn share the Empire 8 record for field goals in a game with five apiece, a mark that Medici achieved in his freshman year against St. John Fisher. The junior is also the Empire 8 record holder for made extra points in a game, a record he set in a 2018 game against Hartwick.
He also demonstrated versatility as the team's punter. Medici also helped the Pioneers lead the nation in punt return defense to this point in the 2019 season. His performance in the punt coverage unit has helped to provide near-certain assurance that Utica will earn the NCAA Division III statistical championship in that category, barring an unprecedented turn of events in the national championship game on Friday night. Medici averaged 37.76 yards per punt, and the Pioneers were the only team in Division III, and one of four teams in all of NCAA football to not concede a single net punt return yard at season's end.
The Pioneers wrapped up the 2019 season against a challenging schedule at 5-5.
