June 17, 2004

Navy's Billy Hurley (Leesburg, Va.) and Mike Miller (Albuquerque, N.M.) have been named to the Academic All-America At-Large Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Hurley and Miller are the second and third Naval Academy student-athletes to garner Academic All-America status this year, joining the newly-commissioned Second Lt. in the United States Marine Corps Courtney Davidson, who was named to the Women's Basketball Academic All-America Second Team this spring.

Hurley is the seventh Patriot League scholar-athlete to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America during the 2003-04 year.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00 and have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing. The academic at-large team represents athletes participating in bowling (women), golf, rifle, volleyball (men), crew (women), gymnastics, skiing, water polo, fencing, ice hockey, swimming, wrestling, field hockey, lacrosse and tennis.

A four-time All-Patriot League selection, Hurley is one of the finest golfers in the program's history. Of the 51 collegiate meets in which he participated during his four-year career, he produced seven wins, finished in the top five 25 times and the top 10 31 times.

Awarded the Academy's Thompson Trophy Cup, presented to that midshipman, male or female, who has done the most during the year to promote athletics at the Naval Academy, he added to his lengthy list of accomplishments when he learned he was the recipient of the 2004 Byron Nelson Award.

Additionally, he was one of the first-two players to be named to the 2004 Palmer Cup presented by Monster Team and is the first player to represent a service academy in the annual Ryder Cup-style competition. He was also on the watch list for the 2004 The Ben Hogan Award and was named the 2004 Patriot League Player of the Year after capturing the Patriot League Tournament title.

Hurley, who garnered PING Mid-Atlantic Region recognition for the second-consecutive season, completed his collegiate career in mid-May when he placed 14th at the 2004 NCAA East Region Championship in New Haven, Conn. He graduated from the Naval Academy in May boasting a 3.71 cumulative GPA as a quantitative economics major.

Miller, a Second-Team NCAA and NRA All-America selection in smallbore, qualified for his third-straight NCAA Championship this spring. The Albuquerque, N.M., native had never shot smallbore before is arrival in Annapolis, but ended his junior campaign with a 12th-place showing at the NCAA Championship.

Miller was also Navy's top finisher at the NCAA Air Rifle Championship in March, taking sixth place with a personal-best tying mark of 391. He also competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in May. Miller owns a 3.66 cumulative GPA as an aerospace engineering major.