Elmhurst, Ill. ???C Junior Ryan Rzepka (Novi, Mich.) of Oakland University???s men???s soccer team has been selected as the 2002-03 Mid-Continent Conference Male Student-Athlete of the Year the conference office announced today. The award is the most prestigious individual honor given by the league. He is just the second student-athlete from Oakland to be selected for the honor, joining Myke Thom (1999-00, men???s basketball) as Oakland???s only winners of the award. Women???s basketball player Tiffany Kyser of IUPUI was the female recipient of the award. A two-time letterwinner for Oakland???s men???s soccer team, Rzepka turned into one of the top defensive players in the Mid-Con last season, helping to lead the Golden Grizzlies to both the Mid-Con regular season and tournament titles and their first-ever appearance as a Division I school in the NCAA Tournament. A second team All-Mid-Con player in 2002, he scored two goals and handed out four assists from his defender???s position and was also named to the Mid-Con All-Tournament team. As a freshman in 2001 Rzepka was a part of an OU team that shared the regular season title and was the runner up at the Mid-Con Tournament, where he was named a member of the Mid-Con All-Tournament team. A team captain last season as a sophomore, Rzepka will again be in that role in 2003. A member of the Dean???s List every semester he has been at Oakland, the finance major posted a 3.9 GPA at the end of the 2002-03 school year and earned the OU Athletic Department???s Excellence in Academics Award as the top male student-athlete scholar. He has also served as a member of both the Mid-Con Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Oakland???s Self Study for Division I Athletic Certification Fiscal Integrity Subcommittee.