The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Kwapisz Named C-USA's Top Men's Soccer Scholar
7/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
July 6, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Men's soccer standout Lukasz Kwapisz was named the top men's soccer scholar in Conference USA for 2004-05 league commissioner Britton Banowsky announced Thursday. Kwapisz was joined by women's golfer Brooke Mangan and women's soccer standout Briana McCarty as the top scholar-athletes in their respective sports.UAB nabbed three of the top scholars in the 17 possible league sports, tying with Memphis and Tulane.
The C-USA Scholar-Athlete Award is given to the top academic performer in each sport in the conference and is parallel to the league's player of the year awards in those sports. The award is based on academic achievement, or grade point average, athletic achievement and service. After Memphis, Tulane and UAB, Houston, Louisville and USF each had two top scholar-athletes.
"To have the top student-athlete in three of the conference's 17 sports is an outstanding accomplishment for our athletic program," UAB athletics director Watson Brown said. "Their hard work in the classroom and on the playing fields makes them very deserving of this honor. UAB is certainly proud of their dedication to their studies."
Mangan, a Mornington, Australia native, became UAB's first-ever NCAA women's golf regional participant this year and garnered First Team All-C-USA honors for Kim Wilcox's squad. McCarty, a senior from Lawrenceville, Ga., is a two-time first team all-conference pick and was one of just 29 individuals to receive an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship this spring. She helped lead the Blazers to the 2004 C-USA title and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Kwapisz, a sophomore from Ontario, Canada, played a key role in Mike Getman's club's league runners-up finishes in both the C-USA regular season and tournament. He appeared in all 19 of UAB's matches and made four starts at forward.
2004-05 CONFERENCE USA SCHOLAR-ATHLETE AWARD WINNERS
Baseball - Marc Maddox, Southern Miss, Tommy Manzella, Tulane
Men's Basketball - Drake Diener, DePaul
Women's Basketball - JoAnn Overstreet, Houston
Men's Cross Country - Kyle MacKenzie, East Carolina
Women's Cross Country - Christa Benton, USF
Football - Stephen Gostkowski, Memphis, Matt Traina, Tulane
Men's Golf - William Hanna, Louisville
Women's Golf - Brooke Mangan, UAB
Men's Soccer - Lukasz Kwapisz, UAB
Women's Soccer - Briana McCarty, UAB
Softball - Tiffany Stewart, USF
Women's Swimming - Azul Almazan, Houston
Men's Tennis - Jakob Gustafsson, Louisville
Women's Tennis - Jenny Kuehn, Tulane
Men's Track and Field - Charles Mashozhera, Marquette
Women's Track and Field - Cassie Ficken, Charlotte, Lisa Hyman, Memphis
Volleyball - Julie DuPont, Cincinnati, Heather Watts, Memphis
