BERKELEY – Cal senior Rachael Acker, a two-time Academic All-American and NCAA individual and team champion, has been named the 2016 Pac-12 Women's Swimming & Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the conference office announced Tuesday.

Acker, a French major who plans on attending medical school, has a lofty grade point average of 3.957. She has twice been named a CoSIDA All-American and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic First Team selection. Acker helped the Bears win the 2015 NCAA championship and swam the lead-off leg of Cal's 800 free relay team that won the 2014 NCAA title. She also had two top-10 finishes at the 2013 NCAA Championships, in the 100 and 200 free.

“I am very proud of Rachael,” Cal coach Teri McKeever said. “Her excellence in the classroom and in the pool is what the university is about and what our program is about. There isn't a better representative of world-class athletics and world-class academics than Rachael. I'm just really, really proud of her and our program for such a distinguished honor.”

Acker has spent time during her college career doing research in Cal's Heald Lab in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology while taking a pre-med courseload. Overall in the pool, she has swam in 10 events at the NCAA Championships.

The Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year is given annually to one senior in each of the conference's 23 sponsored sports. To be eligible, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, participate in at least 50 percent of his or her team's scheduled contests and be at the Pac-12 institution for at least one year.

Acker and the sixth-ranked Bears open competition Wednesday at the Pac-12 Championships in Federal  Way, Wash. Cal will be looking for its third consecutive conference title.