Bradley University is one of two schools to place both a male and a female on the 2010 Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar-Athlete Teams. Men’s basketball junior guard Sam Maniscalco (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick H.S.) and women’s basketball senior forward—Jenny Van Kirk (Waconia, Minn./Waconia H.S.) each earned a spot on their gender’s 10-person Scholar-Athlete Team announced by DI-AAA ADA Wednesday morning.
Bradley and LaSalle were the only two institutions among the 95 NCAA Division I schools that do not sponsor football to place both a male and a female on the 2010 Division I-AAA ADA Scholar-Athlete Teams. While Maniscalco becomes the first Bradley men’s basketball player to earn the distinction, Van Kirk is a repeat selection and has earned the fifth Division I-AAA ADA Scholar-Athlete Team award for the Bradley women’s basketball program since 2002. Bradley now boasts 39 Academic All-America and National Scholar-Athlete Team awards since 1995.
Maniscalco was a second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection this year after averaging 13.1 points and 3.4 assists per game and he has climbed to 30th on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,152 career points. Boasting a 3.38 cumulative grade point average as a sports communications major, Maniscalco also was selected a first-team Valley Scholar-Athlete.The only Bradley women’s basketball player to start all 31 games this past season, Van Kirk averaged 6.3 points and 5.0 rebounds while helping the Braves to their first-ever postseason tournament, a second-round showing in the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Sporting a perfect 4.0 GPA in an individualized major program geared toward medical school preparation, Van Kirk also was a candidate for the 2010 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award and earned first-team status on the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District V and MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams.
-Bob
