May 28—ATHENS — Senior forward Riley Fitzwater of the Concord University women’s basketball team has been selected as a College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-American, the organization announced Thursday afternoon.
The Glenville, West Virginia native averaged 20.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per contest in 16 games in 2021. Fitzwater shot 68.1 percent from the field and averaged 4.5 blocks per game — both the best in Division II this past winter. Fitzwater was voted to the All-Mountain East Conference First Team, and was also named an All-American by the Division II Conference Commissioner’s Association and Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Association at season’s end.
This year’s CoSIDA Academic All-American Teams enveloped career achievements as well. Fitzwater is Division II’s active leader in rebounds (1,218), blocks (439), double-doubles (62) and field-goal percentage (68.0%). Additionally, she was selected to the All-MEC Second Team in all three seasons prior to 2021.
In the classroom, Fitzwater was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Concord earlier this month as she carried a 3.68 GPA as a sports management major during her undergraduate career at Concord. In the fall, she will begin pursuing her master’s degree at CU. Fitzwater has been previously named CoSIDA Academic All-District three times in her career, and has been on the MEC Commissioner’s Honor Roll twice during her time in the Maroon and Gray.
Fitzwater is just the second Academic All-American for women’s basketball joining Janet Foster (1984) and Karen Browning (1990).
Fitzwater was just one of two MEC players to be named to one of the three Academic All-American teams as Fairmont State’s Sierra Kotchman was voted to the first team and was the the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for NCAA Division II women’s basketball.
The Division II Academic All-America program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2020-21 Division II Academic All-America teams program.