Five Polar Bears named to College Sports Communicators Men’s Academic All-District At-Large Team

Five Polar Bears named to College Sports Communicators Men’s Academic All-District At-Large Team
May 23, 2023

By Wes Mayberry

| 2023 CSC Men's Academic All-District At-Large Team (.pdf) |

ADA — Ohio Northern seniors Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) and Ben DePrest (Louisville, Ky./Saint Xavier) and sophomores Jacob Reed (Lancaster), Gavin Layman (Chesterton, Ind.) and Adam Myers (Springfield/Shawnee) were named to the 2023 Men's Academic All-District At-Large Team by College Sports Communicators.

Zaferakis is a goalkeeper on the ONU men's lacrosse team, and DePrest, Reed, Layman and Myers are Polar Bear wrestlers.

To be eligible for Academic All-District honors, each student-athlete must have at least a 3.5 GPA and have played in at least 50 percent of his team's competitions. The CSC's at-large sports include fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.

An All-Ohio Athletic Conference Honorable Mention selection in 2022 and 2023, Zaferakis started all 18 games this season and closed the year with a 12-6 record to go with 142 saves, a .555 save percentage and 7.41 GAA. He ranked third in the conference in GAA and fourth in save percentage and was a three-time OAC Defensive Player of the Week selection.

Named to the InsideLacrosse.com All-Freshman Team in 2020 and an Academic All-OAC pick in 2022, Zaferakis is a six-time OAC Defensive Player of the Week selection who owns program records for saves in a game (19), single-season saves (142) and single-season wins in goal (12). The writing and multimedia studies major is ONU's all-time career leader in saves (441), wins (36) and goalie minutes (2,765:52). His career GAA of 8.33 ranks third all-time, and he has a career record of 36-19 with a save percentage of .535.

DePrest, a forensic biology major, posted a 26-15 record with 14 pins, five technical falls and five major decisions at 197 pounds in 2022-23.

A three-time NWCA Scholar All-American and Academic All-OAC honoree and two-time All-OAC selection, DePrest owns a career record of 60-38 with 35 pins, five technical falls and 11 major decisions. He is a two-time placer at the NCAA Central Regionals, finishing seventh in 2022 and fifth in 2023.

Reed placed third at 141 pounds at the NCAA Championships for the second straight year in 2023, making him the fifth two-time All-American in program history. The 2022 D3wrestle.com Freshman of the Year posted a record of 44-1, finishing one victory shy of the program's all-time single-season record set by current assistant coach Kyle Kwiat in 2012-13. The civil engineering major won the Mount Union Invitational, ONU Invitational, Wilkes (Pa.) Open and NCAA Central Regionals and was named the OAC Wrestler of the Year as a member of the All-OAC First Team. He was named OAC Wrestler of the Week three times and was an Academic All-OAC selection, closing the year with 19 pins and 11 major decisions.

In two seasons at ONU, Reed boasts an 87-6 record with 32 pins and 19 major decisions and is a two-time All-OAC and NWCA Scholar All-American selection.

Layman qualified for the 2023 NCAA Championships after placing second at 184 pounds at the regional meet. An All-OAC First Team and Academic All-OAC selection, Layman placed second in the Mount Union Invitational and ONU Invitational and was third in the Wheaton (Ill.) Invitational. The computer science major finished with a record of 34-8 with 12 pins and is 60-32 with 16 pins in two years at ONU.

Myers posted a 22-11 record with seven pins at 174 pounds in 2023. The political science major placed in three tournaments, finishing sixth at the Baldwin Wallace Invitational and Wilkes (Pa.) Open and seventh at the ONU Invitational. He is a two-time NWCA Scholar All-American and a 2023 Academic All-OAC honoree.

The 2023 Academic All-District At-Large Teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances in athletics and in the classroom. Academic All-District honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America honorees will be announced June 21.

The ONU men's lacrosse team posted its eighth consecutive winning season in 2023, going 12-6 overall, and was fourth in the OAC with a 6-3 league record under eighth-year head coach Nat St. Laurent. Northern ended the year with its fifth consecutive OAC Tournament semifinal appearance.

The Polar Bear wrestling team finished 20-3 in dual meets and was second in the OAC with a 6-1 record in 2022-23, finishing the season ranked No. 13 in the NWCA Tournament Poll and No. 16 in the NWCA Dual Poll under 35th-year head coach Ron Beaschler.