Feb. 21, 2003

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Senior guard Kerensa Barr (West Plains, Mo. / West Plains HS) has been named to the 2002-03 Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America? District VII Second Team, as announced today by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

It is the second straight year that Barr has earned all-district recognition from CoSIDA, as she was named to the first team in 2001-02. That qualified her for the national ballot, where she was voted to the Academic All-America? Third Team - the first time since 1985 that a Missouri women's basketball player earned such an honor.

Barr holds a 3.79 grade-point average through the end of the fall semester, and is on pace to graduate with a double-major in finance and banking/real estate. In addition to her CoSIDA honors, Barr will be selected to her third All-Big 12 Conference Academic Team later this season, and she was also named as one of eight finalists - and the only women's basketball player selected - for the fourth annual Socrates Award. On the court, she is averaging nearly 12 points a game, and is currently second all-time in Missouri women's history in both assists and steals. She also became the 22nd member of the Tigers' 1,000-point club earlier this season.

Both Barr and Iowa State's Lindsey Wilson failed to make the national ballot this season after each were voted by the 1,800-member CoSIDA to the 2001-02 Academic All-America? Third Team. The duo were joined on this year's second team by an impressive list of student-athletes: Kansas State's Nicole Ohlde and Kendra Wecker, Creighton senior Jenny Burns, and Denver senior Ashley Atkinson.

The first team was comprised of Kansas State sophomore Laurie Koehn, and seniors Ashley Augspurger and Shannon Strecker (Colorado State), Carrie Bacon of Wyoming and Northern Iowa's Katie Miller. That quintet will advance on to the national ballot; the 2002-03 Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America? Teams will be announced next month.