Engineering student-athletes earn Academic All-America accolades from CoSIDA
Four Wayne State University engineering student-athletes were voted to the Academic All-America At-Large First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), per an announcement from the WSU Department of Athletics.
Fencers Ziad Elsissy and Zuzanna Sobczak, as well as swimmer Manuela Ferreira, are among an elite group of student-athletes across NCAA Division II who are starters or important reserves on their teams while maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at their current institutions.
Elsissy, a mechanical engineering major from Alexandria, Egypt, was a First Team All-American in competition as well, finishing as the national runner-up in the men's sabre at the 2017 NCAA Fencing Collegiate Championships. He was also the 2017 NCAA Midwest Regional champion.
The 11th two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American in Wayne State history, Ferreira was a three-time First Team All-American in the pool this past season, placing fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke and joining two relays that finished third and sixth, respectively. A native of Ibague, Colombia, Ferreira is studying chemical engineering.
Sobczak, a civil engineering student from Gdansk, Poland, finished ninth in the women's foil competition at the NCAA Championships to earn Honorable Mention All-America status. She received the 2017 Deans' Award in April for having the highest cumulative grade point average of all student-athletes in the College of Engineering.
CoSIDA has honored thousands of student-athletes from sports across all divisions since founding the Academic All-America program in 1952. Sports included in the at-large program are fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo; bowling, crew and field hockey for women; and volleyball and wrestling for men.