August 8, 2008

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . Four Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) tennis teams have been recoginzed as All-Academic Teams and 18 individuals named Scholar Athletes by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) for their wook in the classroom during the 2007-08 academic year.

Men's teams from Luther and Wartburg were among the 35 NCAA Division III men's teams, while their women's counterparts ranked among 66 NCAA Division III women's tennis teams to received the ITA All-Academic Team Award.

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2007 and spring 2008).

A total of 18 IIAC student-athletes were also recognized as ITA Scholar Athletes, including Tim Eisele, Jono Martin, Mark Mateski, Brad Nelson, Matt Olson, Thomas Orser, Jared Wiklund, Justine Allen, Kelsie Allen, Amy Christenson, Fran Fairfield, and Katie Nichols of Luther and Anthony Greco, Andrew Kahler, Amanda Barkema, Molly Eslick, Susie McArdle, and Ashley Richards of Wartburg.

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman thorough senior year).

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