CLEVELAND, OH – Each sports season, the NCAA awards 21 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes who demonstrate both academic and athletic excellence. Over the last five academic years, two institutions from the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), DePauw University and the College of Wooster, rank among the nation's top 10 colleges and universities at any level of the NCAA with scholarship selections.
 
The top 10 colleges and universities to have students earn post-graduate scholarships over the past five academic years are, in order: Stanford University (21), Johns Hopkins University (16), the College of Wooster (13), Emory University (12), the University of Kentucky (12), Nebraska Wesleyan University (12), DePauw University (11), the University of Georgia (11), the University of Tennessee (10), and Arizona State University (10).
 
Wooster, who ranks third nationally in the last five academic years, has seen 13 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners since 2019-20, trailing only Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Most recently, the Fighting' Scots had two student-athletes, Lake Barrett (Columbia, SC/Hammond School) and Athena Tharenos (St. Louis, MO/Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School), earn postgraduate recognition in 2023-24.
 
Barrett, a former Wooster football kicker, graduated with a 3.98 cumulative grade point average as a Biology and Education double major. The three-time CSC Academic All-American was also named to the Wooster AD Honor Roll, Dean's List, and NCAC Academic Honor Roll, and is a two-time National Football Foundation William V. Campbell Trophy semifinalist.
 
The kicker wrapped up his collegiate football career as Wooster's all-time leader with 29 field goals and ranked second all-time with a 76 percent success rate on field goals. Barrett owns a 99.4 percent success rate on extra points, which rates him No. 1 in program history after going 155-for-156 over his career. The 2023 NCAC Special Teams Player of the Year is the program's lone placekicker to have at least 35 extra-point makes with no misses in three different seasons and became the eighth player in program history to earn All-NCAC honors in four separate seasons last fall.
 
Tharenos, a former member of the Wooster cross country and track and field programs, graduated from Wooster with a 3.98 cumulative grade point average with degrees in Anthropology, Chinese Studies, and Environmental Geoscience. During her time at Wooster, Tharenos was named to the AD Honor Roll and NCAC Academic Honor Roll twice, was a three-time United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic honoree, and a two-time CSC All-District member. Additionally, the multisport athlete was selected as a 2023-24 NCAC Scholar-Athlete and received the Wooster Guldin Award.
 
Over her distinguished four-year career, Tharenos was a 12-time All-NCAC and 10-time All-Ohio performer across cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. As a sophomore, she earned first-team All-NCAC honors in cross country after placing sixth in the conference meet, which marked the program's top individual placement since 2006. During her senior campaign, Tharenos reset the Fighting Scots' 3,000-meter steeplechase record with a time of 10:58.09. While studying abroad at The American University of Cairo, Tharenos became the Egyptian national champion in the 1,500 meters.
 
DePauw, who ranks seventh alongside Georgia, has garnered 11 postgraduate awards since 2019-20. Tiger alumnus Annalise Grammel (Canal Winchester, OH/The Columbus Academy) was most recently selected for the scholarship in 2023-24.
 
The former women's soccer and track and field student-athlete graduated from DePauw with a 3.83 grade point average as a Biochemistry major and Management Fellow (business program). She was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma national scholar-athlete honor society and was a 2024 Walker Cup Finalist while also being named to the DePauw Dean's List, Tiger Pride Honor Roll, NCAC Academic Honor Roll and the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team. Most recently, she was selected DePauw's 2024 Amy Hasbrook Award recipient, which recognizes a senior student-athlete from a women's sport who best exemplifies effort and excellence in academics, athletics, leadership, integrity, dedication to the team, campus involvement, and community service.
 
Grammel left Greencastle with seven track and field conference titles and three track and field relay school records, which include the 4x400 outdoor (3:57.30), 4x400 indoor (4:01.29) and 4x200 indoor (1:46.13) records. She was a two-year captain in track and field and a one-year captain in soccer, while earning eight indoor track and field, six outdoor track and field and three women's soccer All-NCAC certificates throughout her career. The 2022 NCAC Midfielder of the Year was named to the NCAC 40th Anniversary Women's Soccer All-Decade Team in the fall of 2023.
 
Overall, the North Coast Athletic Conference has had 41 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients in the last five years which is the third-most of any NCAA conference using 2024-25 conference alignments, trailing just the Southeastern Conference's (SEC) 81 and the Atlantic Coast Conference's (ACC) 58. 
 
Since the NCAC's first-year of athletic competition (1984-85), the conference has had 222 postgraduate scholarship selections across 11 member institutions. Kenyon leads the league with 76 honorees, with its most recent selections in 2022-23. Denison ranks second with 45 scholarships awarded, while Wooster sits in third with 29. DePauw and Ohio Wesleyan are tied for fourth with 16 awards while Allegheny and Case Western Reserve sit in sixth after both institutions earned 10 awards during their tenure with the conference. Oberlin and Wittenberg have collected seven awards apiece to rank eighth while Wabash (5) and Hiram (1) round out the rankings in tenth and eleventh in NCAC postgraduate scholarship honorees.
 
About NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships 
 
The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. The one-time, non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 are awarded three times a year, corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter, and spring). There are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program each sports season. All former student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree from an NCAA member school are eligible to be nominated by their alma mater, regardless of when they received their undergraduate degree.