June 30, 2015
NORFOLK, Va. -- The Penn State women's swimming and diving team posted the 10th-highest GPA in Division I last semester to earn recognition as a College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America team for the fourth consecutive year, and had five student-athletes recognized individually as CSCAA Scholar All-Americans, it was announced Tuesday. The Nittany Lion men also earned CSCAA Scholar All-America Team honors and four individual honorable mentions.
The Lion women also had 10 Scholar All-America honorable mentions for a total of 15 honorees. That figured tied Georgia (11 All-Americans, 4 honorable mentions) and Minnesota (10 All-Americans, 5 honorable mentions) for the most in the nation.
Alyson Ackman (Montreal, Quebec), Carolyn Fittin (Sea Girt, N.J.), Casey Francis (East Meadow, N.Y.), Katelyn Sowinski (Severna Park, Md.) and Megan Siverling (Chester Springs, Pa.) garnered the individual Scholar All-America honors for the Blue and White. Ackman, a rising senior, and Siverling, a recent graduate, were recognized for the third time in their careers. Ackman is poised to become the Lions' sixth four-time scholar All-American, and the first since Merritt Krawczyk (2010-13). Siverling's classmate Fittin and rising junior Sowinski both earned their second nod on the team, while rising junior Francis earned her first.
To be selected to the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team, swimmers and divers must have achieved a grade point average of 3.50 or higher and participated in their respective NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Honorable mention selections have similarly achieved a GPA of 3.50 and achieved a "B" time standard or competed at their respective qualifying meets.
Drawing honorable mentions for the Lion women were Caitlyn Karr (Reading, Pa.), Haley Sinatro (West Hartford, Conn.), Kaitlin Jones (Midlothian, Va.), Katie Saloky (Bloomsburg, Pa.), Katelyn Miller (Hershey, Pa.), Mackenzie Cornell (Germantown, Md.), Meredith Harbison (Butler, Pa.), Niki Price (Manchester, Pa.), Taylor Cameron (Burlington, Ontario) and Anna Farnsworth (State College, Pa.).
On the men's side Andrew Schuehler (Camden, N.J.), Jonathan Ekstrom (Silver Spring, Md.), Nick Ankosko (East Brunswick, N.J.) and T.J. Shenkel (Richboro, Pa.) were recognized.
The CSCAA selected a record 810 swimmers and divers to its Scholar All-America teams across all divisions of intercollegiate athletics, highlighted by CSCAA Swimmers-of-the-Year Missy Franklin and Ryan Murphy from California, Sarah Thompson (Williams) and Andrew Wilson (Emory). An additional 1,079 swimmers and divers were recognized as honorable mention selections. In total 284, institutions placed at least one swimmer or diver on the either the first team or Honorable Mention lists.
"Swimmers and divers truly embody the student-athlete ethos and are well-known for earning some of the highest GPAs on campus," said CSCAA executive director Joel Shinofield. "With nearly half of all national championship qualifiers producing GPA's higher than 3.50, you see swimming and diving adds so much to value to a campus community. These accomplishments are impressive and a sign of the success they will carry on through life, positively representing their schools along the way."
Both the Penn State men's and women's swimming and diving teams were recognized as CSCAA Scholar All-America teams for the 2015 spring semester. To be selected as such, programs must have achieved a grade point average of 3.00 or higher over the spring semester. The CSCAA designated a record 406 collegiate swimming and diving programs as Scholar All-America Teams.
The Lion women were in a three-way tie for 10th with a 3.58 GPA and were just a hundredth of a point shy of a four-way tie for sixth that included Purdue and Yale at 3.59. Eastern Illinois posted the nation's best GPA of 3.70 and was followed by Arkansas (3.67), Evansville (3.61), New Mexico (3.60) and American (3.60).
The Lion men made the cut with a 3.08 team GPA. Both the PSU men's (3.05) and women's (3.43) teams saw their team GPAs rise from the 2014 fall semester.
Nearly 70% of all NCAA swimming and diving programs earned GPA's of 3.0 or higher during the spring semester including 83% of all Division I schools. The announcement comes on the heels of a NCAA report on the Academic Progress Rate of Division I sports. That report showed that Division I men's and women's swimming and diving teams posted the second highest Academic Progress Rates (APR) among those sports with fifty or more teams.
Shinofield noted that the teams' GPAs were especially impressive given the rigorous course load taken by most swimmers. A recent survey of Division I programs showed that over 40% of female swimmers and divers pursued degrees in the STEM fields.
"It doesn't really matter what level teams compete, swimmers and divers devote incredible time and effort into their sport, and it's evident that that discipline carries over into the classroom," said Shinofield.
Founded in 1922, the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) -- the oldest organization of college coaches in America -is a professional organization of college swimming and diving coaches dedicated to serving and providing leadership for the advancement of the sport of swimming & diving at the collegiate level.