BERKELEY – Twenty-five members of California rugby have received academic honors as they near the completion of the 2018-19 academic year, including 11 Rugby Bears among the top-performing student-athletes invited to Tuesday's Academic Honors Luncheon held by the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in the Field Club at Memorial Stadium.
 
Congratulations at the event went to senior Tyler Douglas, set to receive his bachelor degree from the Haas School of Business, for holding the team's highest cumulative GPA for the second straight year. Also honored at the event for their academic achievement were seniors Owen Duvall (Economics major) and Elliot Webb (Interdisciplinary Studies), junior Oliver Sharpe (English) and sophomores Jack Manzo, Blake Richards-Smith and Marcus Shankland (undeclared).
 
Junior Damon Wiley, an American Studies major, joined his teammates at the event as a Student-Athlete of the Week for Intercollegiate Athletics, an honor he received on March 3. Unable to attend but also honored for his academic achievement was junior Sam Cusano (Environmental Economics & Policy).
 
Tuesday's departmental awards were followed by the announcement of rugby's all-academic team, with Cusano, Manzo, Roeske, Shankland and Webb joined by seniors Sebastian Bader (Political Economy), Nic Mirhashem (Interdisciplinary Studies) and Troy Lockyear (Philosophy), and juniors Christian Dyer (Political Science) and George Salter (Political Economy) in receipt of that honor.
 
"Super proud of these boys for their academic accomplishments," said head coach Jack Clark. "They are a credit to our team and University."
 
As the team enters review week and approaches academic exams and graduation, it also begins the transition from 15-a-side play back to Olympic 7s for the final competition of the year at the Collegiate Rugby 7s Championship, held June 1-2 in Philadelphia.