Nick Day of Northampton, Mass., Named CoSIDA Academic All-District

2017 Nov 20

Nick Day from the WPI football team has been honored as a CoSIDA Academic All-District I team member.

Senior Dereck Pacheco and junior Nick Day have garnered CoSIDA Academic All-District I Football accolades, as voted upon by the sports information directors from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The civil engineering majors now move on to the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration.

Pacheco, a 2015 Academic All-District selection and 2017 All-NEWMAC first teamer, made three stops - including one for-loss - and a QB hurry in the Engineers New England Bowl Series triumph on Saturday. He has been upgraded each of the past three years as he began as a Liberty League honorable mention in 2015 and a second teamer in 2016. Overall, the co-captain finished third in the NEWMAC with 17.5 tackles and 75 yards for-loss. Pacheco also amassed 47 tackles - 33 solo, six sacks, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and a blocked kick. The three-year starting defensive end and conference academic honoree performed a stock market IQP and his MQP involves reconstruction of a ski resort parking lot. He is also a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Day, a mainstay on the O-line, helped the team score the most points (354) in a single-season in the 128 years of WPI Football, which is also third in the NEWMAC. He also helped fuel Sean McAllen's single-season record for rushing yards in a campaign, as well as rank second in rushing yards per game and touchdowns. The two-time conference academic selection has been the starting right tackle on a team that allowed only eight sacks in 320 attempts. Day also supported Blake Rice, who led the league in touchdowns and rank second in yards per game. Three receivers appear in the top five in the TD column. The mechanical engineering minor is also a repeat NWCA (wrestling) scholar.

Eighth-year head coach Chris Robertson's Engineers finished the season 9-2 with a seven-game winning-streak and a New England Bowl trophy. The nine wins tie the 1992 team that went to the NCAA tournament and the bowl triumph is the first postseason win in the 128 years of WPI Football.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are more than 40 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.