Six finalists have been selected for the Walter Byers Scholarships, which will be awarded this spring by the Association.

The NCAA's Walter Byers Scholarship Committee will interview the finalists -- three male and three female -- later this month. Two recipients will be selected.

The women's finalists are Claudia Veritas, captain of the lacrosse team at Wellesley College who placed first in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site competition; Rebecca Stallwood, a track and field athlete at West Virginia University who was an all-American athletically and has earned numerous academic honors; and Ann Brooks, a University of Missouri, Columbia, track and field athlete who is an all-scholar selection.

The men's finalists are Kyle Eash, a two-sport athlete (football and track) at Illinois Wesleyan University who earned national and conference academic and athletics honors; David Scott, a Lipscomb University cross country runner who sports a perfect grade-point average and received a full academic scholarship; and Ziga Ivanic, an ice hockey and tennis player at Norwich University who is president of Vermont's engineering honors society and was a member of Norwich's 2000 Division III national champion ice hockey team.

Each Byers scholar receives a $12,500 scholarship from the NCAA. The awards were established in 1988 to recognize the contributions of the former NCAA executive director by encouraging excellence in academic performance by student-athletes.

Award recipients must have a 3.500 grade-point average (4.000 scale), show evidence of superior character and leadership and demonstrate that participation in athletics has been a positive influence on personal and intellectual development.