May 31, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Tulsa junior Sara Dyer was named to the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team, as announced on Thursday by CoSIDA. The Sand Springs, Okla., native also earned All-District VI academic honors in order to be eligible for All-America status.

A communications major, Dyer sports a 3.92 grade point average. Starting in all 56 games for the Golden Hurricane at first base, Dyer leads the nation in doubles with 25 and doubles per game with a 0.45 average. She has set school records for doubles in a season and RBI in a season. Dyer recorded at least one hit in 40 contests this year, including 21 contests with more than one hit. Earlier this month, Dyer also became the first TU softball player to earn three-consecutive first-team all-conference honors.

While Dyer is the first first-teamer in TU history, former Golden Hurricane slugger Brandi McGuire earned second-team honors in 2003.

The Academic All-America program annually honors over 1600 student-athletes who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA (the College Sports Information Directors of America), a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

To be nominated, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his/her career. No athlete is eligible until he/she has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his/her current institution. In the cases of transfers, graduate students and junior college graduates, the athlete must have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to be eligible.

In addition to Dyer, Katie Bush of Houston, Jenna Kubesch of Memphis and Kacie Feaster of UCF all were named Academic All-District honorees by CoSIDA earlier this month.