Gronewold named to Lindy's pre-season All-America squad

Ashton Gronewold

Ashton Gronewold has earned All-America in each of the last two seasons while playing for the Miner football team -- and the early 2007 honors are beginning to head his way.

Gronewold, a senior wide receiver in the upcoming year for the Miners, has been named to the pre-season All-America first team by Lindy's Football magazine in its 2007 preview magazine that is currently on the newsstands.

After a year in which he compiled a school record 1,788 all-purpose yards, Gronewold was named to the first team as an all-purpose player. Last year's Great Lakes Football Conference "Offensive Player of the Year" broke 12 school records over the course of the 2006 campaign, including marks with 78 catches for 1,120 yards.

He also broke the UMR career marks in receiving and scoring during the season and set new single-game records for receiving yards (229 vs. Morehead State) and all-purpose yards (294 vs. Saint Joseph's). In all, Gronewold scored 17 touchdowns for the season, 15 receiving, one on a kickoff return and another on a punt return.

Those efforts led to additional post-season honors for him, as he was selected to the Associated Press' Little All-America second team, Football Gazette's third team and D2Football.com's honorable mention squad for the second straight year.

Gronewold holds UMR career records for receptions (191), receiving yards (2,699), receiving touchdowns (39) and overall touchdowns scored (42) heading into the upcoming campaign.

The Miners will open the 2007 season at home August 25 against Truman State University after going 6-5 in 2006.

LINDY'S FOOTBALL 2007 PRE-SEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM

-- Offense --
QB: Willie Copeland, Sr., Valdosta State
RB: Xavier Oman, Sr., Northwest Missouri State
RB: Danny Woodhead, Sr., Chadron State
WR: Weston Dressler, Sr., North Dakota
WR: Michael Washington, Jr., West Chester
TE: Mike Peterson, Sr., Northwest Missouri State
OL: Brandon Barnes, Sr., Grand Valley State
OL: Heath Benedict, Sr., Newberry
OL: Mackenzy Bernadeau, Sr., Bentley
OL: Ben Hochstein, Sr., Nebraska-Omaha
OL: Tim McCutcheon, Sr., California (Pa.)
AP: Ashton Gronewold, Sr., Missouri-Rolla
PK: David Chudzinski, Sr., Wayne State (Mich.)

-- Defense --
DL: Andre Bernardi, Jr., North Greenville
DL: Kevin Dixon, Jr., West Liberty State
DL: Ron Ellington, Sr., Catawba
DL: Alex Hall, Sr., St. Augustine's
LB: Anthony Adams, Sr., Grand Valley State
LB: Scott Hayden, Jr., Merrimack
LB: Cody Stutts, Sr., Abilene Christian
DB: Brandon Carr, Sr., Grand Valley State
DB: Sevohn Greer, Sr., Harding
DB: Divon Hughes, Jr., Henderson State
DB: Josh Jones, Jr., Minnesota State-Moorhead
P: Jason Davis, Sr., Western State