Utah Utes campus briefs

ATHLETICS: Three Utah athletes have been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII team, announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Gymnast Daria Bijak and skier Eva Huckova made the all-district first team, which qualifies them for the national Academic All-America ballot. Skier Torjus Krogdahl is a second-team pick.

Bijak led the Utah gymnasts into the NCAA Super Six, earning first-team All-America honors in the all-around and on the uneven bars. The senior eight-time All-American, who was a 2008 Olympian, carries a 3.85 grade point average in film studies. Bijak won the 2010 Bud Jack Academic Award, which is given to the Utah senior female athlete with the highest cumulative GPA, and is a two-time recipient of the Dahl Award, which goes to the top Utah gymnastics scholar-athlete. She was a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-District selection as a sophomore and junior.

Huckova, a junior finance major with a 3.98 GPA, was the 2010 NCAA giant slalom champion and helped the Utah ski team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. She won two races during the regular season, along with three runner-place finishes. Huckova is a five-time All-American and competed in the 2006 Olympics. She has won Utah's Toril Forland Women's Outstanding Skier Award three years running.

Krogdahl, who has a 3.97 GPA in business, earned All-America honors in both the slalom and giant slalom at the 2010 NCAA Championships. The sophomore finished second in the slalom and ninth in the GS at the championships. He was selected as Utah's David Novelle Men's Outstanding Skier.

Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

BASEBALL: Utah sophomore catcher C.J. Cron has been selected as one of 25 semifinalists for the 2010 Dick Howser Trophy, given to the top player in collegiate baseball. The award is selected by the membership of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and the College Baseball Foundation.

Cron leads the nation in RBI per game (1.59) and is eighth in home runs per game (0.39). He ranks second in the MWC with a .426 batting average. He leads the MWC in slugging percentage (.795), home runs (17) and runs batted in (70). His career accomplishments include being the only player in the country last season to have three hits in a game off 2009 MLB No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg.

Cron is the only player from the Mountain West Conference selected as a semifinalist.

The membership of the NCBWA will choose the Dick Howser Trophy based on two rounds of national voting. Three 2010 finalists will be announced just prior to the first game of the College World Series with a press conference slated for Saturday, June 10, at 10 a.m. (CDT) at Rosenblatt Stadium. The winner will be named in a national broadcast from Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, July 2.