Raplee and Meier Named 2012 D3football.com All-Americans
D3football.com All-American Teams
Seniors Mike Raplee and Jeremy Meier were named to the 2012 D3football.com All-America Team, as announced by the website in mid-December. Raplee, a defensive tackle on the Alfred University football team, earned First Team honors and Meier, a wide receiver for the Utica Pioneers was selected to the Third Team.
This marks Raplee's third All-American honor - he earned honorable mention in 2010 and 2011. Raplee becomes the first Saxon player ever to earn First Team honors from the website. Meier is the first Utica player in the program’s 12 year history to earn a spot on one of the four D3football.com All-America teams.
The 2012 Empire 8 Conference Defensive Player of the Year and a First Team Empire 8 all-star, Raplee anchored a Saxon defense that allowed only 118.8 yards rushing per game. He had a team-leading 72 tackles (20 ½ for loss) with 11 ½ sacks and two forced fumbles. In an Oct. 6 Homecoming win over Ithaca he tallied eight tackles, including 4 ½ sacks.
Raplee completed his AU career as a four-time Empire 8 all-star: he was an honorable mention selection as a freshman and was named to the First Team each of the last three years.
This past season Meier led the Empire 8 in touchdowns (15), receptions (73), yards (1,212), yards per game (121.2), and yards per catch (16.6). He also finished the year ranked ninth in the country in yards receiving per game.
He became the first Pioneer in school history to record over 1,000 yards (1,212) receiving in a single-season and also broke the college's all-time record in yards (2,472) and receptions (187). Meier will graduate as the College's all-time leading scorer with 194 career points scored. He scored a school-record 32 career touchdowns. His yards, receptions, and touchdown catches this past year were both single-season records for UC.