Augustana senior track & field multi-event standout Josh Eisenberg (Richmond-Burton HS, Spring Grove, Ill.) has been awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, it was announced today. He has enjoyed a tremendous career both on the track, where he has excelled in the heptathlon indoors and decathlon outdoors and in the classroom where he has a 3.96 grade point average with a major in biology.
A much decorated student-athlete, Eisenberg is one of just 29 male student-athletes across the country to win an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. The $7,500-dollar grant is awarded by the NCAA to "student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition."
Eisenberg is the 31
st Augustana student-athlete to win an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and he joins fellow seniors Maggie Hoscheit
(St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.), a standout on the women's soccer team, and Erik Westerberg (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) as Viking winners for the 2013-14 school year.
A year ago Eisenberg was named to the
Capital One Academic All-American team and this past winter he won the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin heptathlon during the indoor championships with a league record point total of 4,908. That was also a school record. He finished 12
th in the NCAA Division III indoor national championship in the heptathlon this past March in Lincoln, Nebraska.
He is currently the team captain of the Vikings and has been a six-time all-conference performer, three times during the indoor heptathlon and three times during the outdoor decathlon. So far this outdoor season he has put up a best score of 6,469 points in the decathlon, which he recorded at the Meet of Champions on April 17-18 at Paul V. Olsen Track.
Eisenberg has been named to the CCIW's academic all-conference team six times and he was the winner of the Jack Swartz Award in the CCIW after the winter sports' season in 2013-14. That award is given to one male and one female athlete at the end of each athletic season. It factors in athletic excellence and academic success.
He was named to the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association all-academic team as a junior. On Sunday, May 4 he was awarded the Knut Erickson Award by the Augustana athletic department to signify the senior four-year letter winner with the highest cumulative GPA. He was also selected as the Vikings Most Improved Freshman after the 2011 season.
Similar to his athletic success, Eisenberg's academic resume is filled with accolades. He did cancer research at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas during the summer before his senior year. He also did retinal development research at Augustana for the entire school year. He served as an emergency department volunteer at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston during the summer of 2013 and at Centegra Hospital in McHenry, Illinois during the summer of 2012.
He has been involved in Athletes Giving Back and is a member of the Beta Beta Beta biological honor society. He also received the Community Service Award from the village of Spring Grove in 2012.
Eisenberg, who will graduate in May from Augustana and will attend the Loyola University Medical School in the fall of 2014, is the son of Mark and Brenda Eisenberg of Spring Grove, Illinois.
AUGUSTANA ATHLETES WHO HAVE EARNED NCAA POST GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPSÂ
| YEAR | ATHLETE | SPORT |
| 1968 | Jeff Maurus | Football |
| 1970 | Tim Dodge | Wrestling |
| 1971 | Ken Anderson | Football |
| 1975 | Bruce Hamming | Basketball |
| 1976 | John Stanek | Men's Track & Field |
| 1977 | Joe Thompson | Football |
| 1986 | Steve Sanders | Football |
| 1995 | Rachel Knapp | Women's Track & Field |
| 1995 | Tommy King | Football |
| 1996 | Ryan Carpenter | Football |
| 1998 | Alison Wolak | Women's Track & Field |
| 1998 | Chris Meskan | Football |
| 2000 | Mackenzie Hay | Football |
| 2001 | Kim Baier | Women's Track & Field |
| 2002 | Rudy Kovachevich | Men's Cross Country |
| 2003 | Todd Baldwin | Football |
| 2004 | Manda Geerts | Women's Track & Field |
| 2005 | Steve Broski | Baseball |
| 2006 | Nick Johnson | Men's Track & Field |
| 2007 | Meghan Voiland | Women's Track & Field |
| 2007 | Samantha Knox | Softball |
| 2009 | Keli Coleman | Women's Track & Field |
| 2009 | John Wagle | Baseball |
| 2009 | Blaine Westemeyer | Football |
| 2010 | Max Petersen | Men's Track & Field |
| 2012 | Matt Bowman | Men's Track & Field |
| 2013 | Greg Patton | Men's Track & Field |
| 2013 | Sarahbeth Jones | Women's Track & Field |
| 2014 | Maggie Hoscheit | Women's Soccer |
| 2014 | Erik Westerberg | Football |
| 2015 | Josh Eisenberg | Men's Track & Field |
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