Business majors excel in athletics and academics

Four business majors recently received honors for contributions to their sports teams and outstanding achievements in the classroom.

Marketing and management major Thomas Ducret (Paris, France), who plays tennis at Wayne State University, has been voted to receive a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Spring 2012 Commissioner's Award. The awards, sponsored by Meijer, are presented after the fall, winter, and spring athletic seasons to six female and six male student-athletes who excel both in the classroom and on the fields of play.

Ducret was a First Team All-GLIAC selection for the second straight season and an all-league performer for the third time after earning the Second Team All-conference award as a freshman. He won all four of his matches (three doubles and one singles) at the 2012 GLIAC tournament and tied for the team lead with 16 singles victories. He compiled a 16-12 singles record including a 10-8 mark at No. 1 singles and had a 17-10 doubles record primarily at third doubles (13-6). As a member of the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team, Ducret helped the Warriors to a third place GLIAC finish with a 7-2 conference record and he was rated as the 10th best singles player in the region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Management major and basketball player Ian Larkin (Detroit, Michigan) was one of two WSU business students to receive a GLIAC Winter 2012 Commissioner's Award.

Larkin was a Second Team All-GLIAC selection as well as a GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team member for the 2011-12 academic year. He led the basketball conference in three-point field goal percentage (57.1 on 28-of-49), was fourth in both field goal percentage (57.9 on 99-of-171) and blocked shots (1.6 per game), tied for eighth in offensive rebounds (2.1 per game), 14th in scoring (13.4 ppg), and 20th in rebounding (5.4 rpg), while starting all 27 games. Larkin also set a career high with 43 blocked shots. He scored in double figures 19 times and will enter his senior year with 651 career points. While setting himself apart from the competition on the court, he has remained an honor roll student every semester with a cumulative grade point average of 3.68.

Management major and swimmer Fares Ksebati (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan) also received a 2012 GLIAC Winter Commissioner's Award.

Ksebati, a Dean's Award winner for the WSU School of Business Administration, is a two-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence honoree in swimming. He finished 11th in the 1650 yard freestyle, 12th in the 100 yard breaststroke and 16th in the 200 breaststroke, contributing to WSU’s successful defense of the GLIAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championship.

Finance major and WSU tennis player Oscar Gamarra (Guayaquil, Ecuador) has been voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-District ® Men's At-Large First Team for District IV. With this honor, Gamarra becomes the first men's tennis player in WSU history to obtain the Academic All-America award.

He is a two-time Academic All-District selection and earned First Team honors in 2012 after being voted to the Second Team in 2011. He also was voted Second Team All-GLIAC on the court a year ago.

Not only is he a winner on the tennis court, but also a champion in the classroom. Gamarra has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll for maintaining a grade point average at or above 3.5 all five semesters at WSU, including three 4.0 terms. He will enter his senior season ninth in all-time singles wins (36) and sixth in career doubles wins (41).

Through dedication and determination, these four gentlemen have proven that they can play hard on the court, and work even harder in the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

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