July 17, 2008

Former Wayne State University diver Erika Barczak (Williamston, Mich.) was named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's (GLIAC) 2007-08 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as voted by the league's faculty-athletic representatives.

The award caps off a tremendously successful senior year for Barczak, an art major with a cumulative grade point average of 3.97. She was also voted to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America Women's At-Large First Team and was among the recipients of the Winter 2008 GLIAC Commissioner's Award.

Barczak became the first WSU student-athlete to earn a First Team At-Large Academic All-America selection since fencer Ettore Bianchi in 1984. She is the ninth CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America selection in school history, the first since 1995 (baseball player Matt Essian) and the second WSU swimmer/diver ever, joining swimmer David Lutz who was a Third Team honoree in 2005. Barczak collected her second consecutive Academic All-District First Team honor as well.

This past season, Barczak earned two First Team All-America nods by placing fourth in one-meter diving (408.75) and sixth on the three-meter board (366.85). She helped lead the Warriors to their third straight GLIAC championship and a top-ten national ranking. In her collegiate career, she earned seven All-America accolades including three First Team All-America honors in three-meter diving.

Click here for the full GLIAC release.