I saw this a few weeks ago but didn’t actually get around to reading what it was all about until just a few days ago. The award goes to the student-athlete with the highest GPA from all those who participated in the NCAA Championships and who had participated on the team for at least 2 years.
The video below the Drake release is an interview with Salibasic conducted by the legendary Dave “Koz” Kozlowski. Near the end it mentions that Salibasic will be heading to graduate school at Princeton and he’ll also be a graduate assistant coach with the tennis team.
Salibasic Adds Another NCAA Elite 89 Award To His Resume
Courtesy: Drake Athletics
Release: May 29, 2015
DES MOINES, Iowa Drake University senior Alen Salibasic (Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina) received the NCAA Elite 89 award for the second straight year for the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship.
“I set a few goals for myself at the beginning of the year and one of them was making it to the NCAA Tournament and the other was maintaining my GPA. And the NCAA award kind of reminds of that because it combines both athletic and academic success, said Salibasic. “It’s just a feeling of accomplishment and it feels good to achieve the goals that I had set for myself.
The Elite 89, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 89 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships.
Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above who have participated in their sport for at least two years with their school. They must be an active member of the team, traveling and a designated member of the squad size at the championship. The number of credits completed breaks all ties.
Full details on the Elite 89 award are at ncaa.org and this link shows a list of all the winners across each sport and division.
Here were the tennis winners:
Division 1: Men – Alen Salibasic (Drake); Women – Aldila Sutjiadi (Kentucky)
Division 2: Men – Diego Zegarra (Lander); Women – Linda Fritschken (Barry)
Division 3: Men – Matthew Heinrich (Stevens Tech); Women – Lindsey Liles (Sewanee)
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