GW's Wright, Zenk Earn Top Senior Athlete Awards

David Zenk and Maggie Wright won the top senior awards at Monday's Luncheon.

5/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | General

May 4, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC -- Seniors David Zenk of the men's swimming and men's water polo teams and Maggie Wright of the volleyball team were named the 2009 recipients of the J. Dallas Shirley Outstanding Senior Male Athlete Award and the Lynn George Outstanding Senior Woman Athlete Award, respectively, at George Washington University's annual Senior Honors Luncheon on the GW campus Monday.

Zenk, a two-sport standout, became the first swimmer in the history of the Atlantic 10 Conference to be named Most Outstanding Performer three times. One of the greatest swimmers in GW history, Zenk owns five school records and also ranks among the GW men's swimming All-Time Top 10 times in three additional events. A two-year member of GW's Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Zenk was named the 2009 A-10 Student-Athlete of Year for men's swimming. Zenk also enjoyed one of the finest careers in men's water polo history, becoming the first Colonial to earn All-America honors with an honorable mention selection in 2007. In four seasons, he amassed a school records in assists, steals, swim-offs and field blocks. He also ranks fourth all-time with 320 points and 11th with 162 career goals. A two-time all-conference performer, Zenk was also named to the ACWPC All-Academic Team three times and the CWPA Scholar-Athlete Team in each of his four seasons.

A four-year letterwinner for the volleyball team, Wright is the team's starting Libero. She surpassed the 1,000-dig milestone this season and her 1,229 career digs rank 7th on GW's all-time career digs list. For the second straight year, she was named GW's Defensive Player of the Year by the coaching staff. In the classroom, Wright is a pre-health professional major and maintained a 3.94 grade-point average. Wright was named this year's A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year for volleyball and also was voted to the prestigious ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District 2 First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America, after being selected to the Second Team last year. Wright also was named to the Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference team.

Men's Rower Ben Lookner (Lawrenceville, NJ) along with Softball player Carrie Higdon (Newburg, MD) won the Senior Male and Senior Female Athlete Academic Awards, respectively.

Top academic teams were Men's Golf (3.406 team GPA) and, for the second straight year, Women's Swimming (3.45 team GPA). Also honored were 24 Most Valuable Players, including five repeat winners, representing each varsity sport and the Spirit Program.

GW Athletics Most Valuable Players for 2008-09
* denotes multiple MVP selections

Baseball Sean Rockey (Sammamish, WA)

Men's Basketball Rob Diggs ** (Brandywine, MD)

Women's Basketball Jessica Adair (Washington, DC)

Men's Cross Country Collin Stevenson (Sumner, WA)

Women's Cross Country Megan Hogan (Ballston Spa, NY)

Golf Brendan Barrack (Toronto, ONT)

Gymnastics Kristen Simpson (Surfside, SC)

Women's Lacrosse Taylor Donohue (Villanova, PA)

Men's Rowing William Lee (Guilford, CT)

Women's Rowing Elizabeth Austin (Madison, WI)

Men's Soccer Andrew Stadler ** (Wauwatosa, WI)