ATLANTA - Georgia State junior center Cody Paulk was named to the Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District women's basketball team. She is now eligible for the Capital One Academic All-America team in voting that begins on Feb. 7.
Paulk, a chemistry major and mathematics minor, is studying to become a pharmacist. All her classes this past semester were chemistry and physics, having completed all the calculus courses to qualify. The six-foot-three basketball center has maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.62 and was the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year last year. She was previously named to last year's Colonial Athletic Association All-Academic first team and the Georgia State All-Academic first team. All five semesters at GSU, she has been on the Dean's List or Athletic Director's honor roll, despite the challenging class schedule and basketball workload.
To be eligible for Capitol One All-America, a student-athlete must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher and must be a starter or key player on their team. This year's District 4 All-Academic team of six members includes student-athletes from Auburn, Florida, Samford and Florida Gulf Coast, making Paulk the lone one from the state of Georgia.
On the basketball court, Paulk is on pace to become the school's all-time shot blocker with 112, currently sixth most in school history. With just five more blocks, she'll move up to fourth place. Her 56 blocked shots last year were the third most in a season in school history. This year, she co-leads the team with 35 blocks, which ties for third in the CAA. Paulk has had 12 double-figure scoring games at Georgia State, including four this season.
Paulk's selection to the Academic All-District team is a school record eighth student-athlete of this school year. She joins volleyball's Vineece Verdun, men's soccer's Vincent Foermer, women's soccer's Sarah Bennett, Bri Cagle and Jewel Evans, along with football's Michael Hall and Kalan Jenkins. Cagle and Verdun went on to make the All-America team.
She is the first GSU women's basketball player to earn All-District honors since Evita Rogers in 2002-03.
The 20-year old is the daughter of Darron and Chaun Paulk. Cody grew up and graduated from Gadsden City High School in Gadsden, Ala. Her high school team was 25-5 and No. 4 in the state as she was a second-team 6A pick.
