May 4, 2006

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Institute of Technology recognized the contributions and accomplishments of 200 student-athletes on its 15 varsity teams for 2005-06 at the annual athletic awards banquet Wednesday night on campus.

The night was capped with the announcements of the 2005-06 Male and Female Athletes of the Year, as well as the Male and Female Newcomers of the Year. The Male Athlete of the Year was junior basketball player Clayton Barker, while record-setting senior swimmer Ana Ossa was honored as the school's Female Athlete of the Year for the third time in as many years. Tennis player Iulia Doci was the Female Newcomer of the Year, while runner Umar Saeed and baseball player Craig Binkiewicz shared Male Newcomer of the Year laurels.

Female Athlete of the Year: Ana Ossa
This is Ana's third straight time as NJIT's Female Athlete of the Year. She completes her career with ownership of 16 of 17 individual school records, lacking only the mark in the 50-yard freestyle. She has set and then re-set the records for most of the events many times.

At the Metropolitan championships this year, she scored points in all three events that she entered, setting new school records in each event.

In addition to her work in the pool, Ana is also a brilliant student, holding a cumulative GPA of 3.963, while majoring in electrical engineering.

Male Athlete of the Year: Clayton Barker
Barker ranked 12th in the nation with 21.9 points per game and was first-team all-Central Atlantic College Conference and second-team all-Met. He also ranked nationally in three-point field goals per game, steals per game and in three-point field goal percentage.

He is eighth on the NJIT career scoring list, with 1,328 points, including 570 in 2005-06--the fourth-highest season total in school history. And he set a new school record with 45 points in the season-ending win over Post.