Kentucky Women Lead CSCAA Academic Team Scholar Awards With Astonishing Team GPA

Edit: a previous version of this article stated that Minnesota got a 3.86, which was the number released by the CSCAA. An Academic adviser for Minnesota confirms that it was a 3.386.

The College Swim Coaches Association (CSCAA) has announced their 2014 Spring Scholar All-America Team Awards, recognizing the women’s programs who achieved an average GPA of 3.0 or greater (on a 4.0 scale) in the most recent semester, and it is Lars Joregnsen’s Kentucky team who leads the way.

Their impressive 3.72 GPA, confirmed by head coach Lars Jorgensen, means that of the 24 swimmers listed on Kentucky’s roster for the 2013-2014 season, if they averaged about 4.5 classes each, they got about 93 A’s and just 15 B’s. That’s an impressive ratio.

The only team to finish both semesters in the top 5 GPA’s in the country is the Alabama women, who had the leading GPA (3.60) in the fall and the 3rd-ranked GPA (3.65) in the spring. That’s noteworthy, because often times academic advisers for college athletics (both in swimming and outside of swimming) will unbalance classes between semesters to help athletes better manage their academic versus athletic loads. For example, many programs will have swimmers take their more challenging classes in the fall because there is significantly more class time missed in the spring for championship meets. Excelling academically in both semesters, therefore, shows year-round dedication to the academic cause.

As for the teams that really strutted in both the classroom and the pool, here are those teams that finished in the top 10 at the 2014 NCAA Championships and also had a team GPA above 3.0:

  1. Georgia (3.37, #63)
  2. Stanford (3.27, #106)
  3. Cal (3.27, #106)
  4. Texas A&M (3.22, #121)
  5. USC (3.26, #110)
  6. Florida (3.29, #101)
  7. Tennessee (3.44, #40)
  8. Arizona (3.41, #48)
  9. Texas (3.18, #131)
  10. Minnesota (3.38, #61)

In all, the top 25 teams from the 2014 NCAA Championships achieved over a 3.0 GPA, as did 150 out of 198 women’s Division I programs. Swimmers are setting the academic bar high.

Divison Gender GPA Institution Coach
         
1 Women 3.72 Kentucky Lars Jorgensen
1 Women 3.68 Arkansas, Little Rock Amy Burgess
1 Women 3.65 Alabama Dennis Pursley
1 Women 3.61 New Mexico Kunio Kono
1 Women 3.59 Illinois State Steve Paska
1 Women 3.59 UNLV Jim Reitz
1 Women 3.58 Fairfield William Farley
1 Women 3.58 Northern Arizona Andy Johns
1 Women 3.58 Southern Illinois Rick Walker
1 Women 3.57 Northern Colorado Kelly McClanahan
1 Women 3.55 North Texas Brendon Bray
1 Women 3.53 Arkansas Sean Schimmel
1 Women 3.53 Ball State Kristy Castillo
1 Women 3.53 Tulane Katie Robinson
1 Women 3.52 American Mark Davin
1 Women 3.51 New Hampshire Josh Willman
1 Women 3.51 Penn State Tim Murphy
1 Women 3.51 Toledo Chris Peters
1 Women 3.50 Yale Jim Henry
1 Women 3.49 Bowling Green Petra Martin
1 Women 3.49 Evansville Rickey Perkins
1 Women 3.49 Grand Canyon Steve Schaffer
1 Women 3.48 Boise State Kristin Hill
1 Women 3.48 Butler Maurice Stewart
1 Women 3.48 Dartmouth Jim Wilson
1 Women 3.48 Gardner-Webb Mike Simpson
1 Women 3.47 Clemson L. Hasselbach Adams
1 Women 3.47 Drexel Adam Braun
1 Women 3.47 Illinois Sue Novitsky
1 Women 3.47 Iona Nick Cavataro
1 Women 3.47 Northern Iowa Doug Humphrey
1 Women 3.47 South Dakota State Brad Erickson
1 Women 3.47 Villanova Rick Simpson
1 Women 3.46 George Washington Dan Rhinehart
1 Women 3.46 Miami (OH) Mark Davis
1 Women 3.46 West Virginia Victor Riggs
1 Women 3.45 Duke Dan Colella
1 Women 3.45 Georgetown James Holder
1 Women 3.45 Towson Patrick Mead
1 Women 3.44 Harvard S. Wriede-Morawski
1 Women 3.44 Tennessee Matt Kredich
1 Women 3.43 Denver Brian Schrader
1 Women 3.43 North Dakota Christopher Maiello
1 Women 3.43 Rice Seth Huston
1 Women 3.43 Wisconsin Whitney Hite
1 Women 3.42 Brown Peter Brown
1 Women 3.42 Texas Christian Richard Sybesma
1 Women 3.41 Arizona Rick DeMont
1 Women 3.40 Bucknell Dan Schinnerer
1 Women 3.40 U MASS, Amherst Bob Newcomb
1 Women 3.40 Michigan State Matt Gianiodis
1 Women 3.40 Purdue John Klinge
1 Women 3.40 Siena Paul Kueterman
1 Women 3.40 Southern Methodist Steve Collins
1 Women 3.40 William and Mary Matt Crispino
1 Women 3.39 Davidson John Young
1 Women 3.39 Eastern Michigan Peter Linn
1 Women 3.39 IUPUI Matt Bos
1 Women 3.39 Seton Hall Ron Farina
1 Women 3.39 Xavier Brent MacDonald
1 Women 3.38 Minnesota Kelly Kremer
1 Women 3.38 Cornell Joe Lucia
1 Women 3.38 Washington State Tom Jager
1 Women 3.37 Arizona State Dorsey Tierney-Walker
1 Women 3.37 Georgia Harvey Humphries
1 Women 3.37 New Mexico State Richard Pratt
1 Women 3.37 Oakland Pete Hovland
1 Women 3.37 Pittsburgh Chuck Knoles
1 Women 3.37 Rider Stephen Fletcher
1 Women 3.37 Virginia Augie Busch
1 Women 3.36 Akron Brian Peresie
1 Women 3.36 Boston Thomas Groden
1 Women 3.36 Marist Larry Van Wagner
1 Women 3.36 Missouri Greg Rhodenbaugh
1 Women 3.36 Niagara Ben Nigro
1 Women 3.36 Richmond Matthew Barany
1 Women 3.36 Virginia Tech Ned Skinner
1 Women 3.35 Georgia Southern Nate Kellogg
1 Women 3.35 La Salle Matthew Nunnally
1 Women 3.35 Marshall Bill Tramel
1 Women 3.35 UMBC Chad Cradock
1 Women 3.34 Mount St. Mary’s Neil Yost
1 Women 3.34 Ohio State Bill Dorenkott
1 Women 3.34 Providence John O’Neill
1 Women 3.34 Seattle Craig Nisgor
1 Women 3.34 Vermont Gerry Cournoyer
1 Women 3.34 Western Kentucky Bruce Marchionda
1 Women 3.33 Campbell Pascal Molinard
1 Women 3.32 Florida Gulf Coast Neal Studd
1 Women 3.32 Loyola Marymount Bonnie Adair
1 Women 3.32 Miami (FL) Andy Kershaw
1 Women 3.32 Missouri State Dave Collins
1 Women 3.32 Rhode Island Michael Westkott
1 Women 3.32 Rutgers Phil Spiniello
1 Women 3.32 San Jose State Sage Hopkins
1 Women 3.31 Kansas Clark Campbell
1 Women 3.31 Lafayette James Dailey
1 Women 3.31 Northwestern Jimmy Tierney
1 Women 3.30 Fresno State Jeanne Fleck
1 Women 3.30 Illinois at Chicago Susan Bromberg
1 Women 3.30 Saint Francis (PA) Rory Coleman
1 Women 3.29 Canisius Scott Vanderzell
1 Women 3.29 East Carolina Rick Kobe
1 Women 3.29 Florida Gregg Troy
1 Women 3.29 Fordham Stephen Potsklan
1 Women 3.28 Iowa Marc Long
1 Women 3.27 California Teri McKeever
1 Women 3.27 Loyola (MD) Brian Loeffler
1 Women 3.27 South Dakota Jason Mahowald
1 Women 3.27 Stanford Gregory Meehan
1 Women 3.26 Princeton Susan Teeter
1 Women 3.26 Univ. of San Diego Mike Keeler
1 Women 3.26 Southern California Dave Salo
1 Women 3.26 Utah Joe Dykstra
1 Women 3.25 Georgia Tech Courtney Hart
1 Women 3.25 Indiana Ray Looze
1 Women 3.23 Hawaii Victor Wales
1 Women 3.23 Michigan Mike Bottom
1 Women 3.23 NC State Braden Holloway
  Women 3.23 Pepperdine Nick Rodionoff
1 Women 3.22 Brigham Young John Brooks
1 Women 3.22 Connecticut Bob Goldberg
1 Women 3.22 Texas A&M Steve Bultman
1 Women 3.21 Central Connecticut Bill Ball
1 Women 3.21 Idaho Mark Sowa
1 Women 3.21 James Madison Dane Pedersen
1 Women 3.21 Penn Michael Schnur
1 Women 3.20 Houston Rich Murphy
1 Women 3.20 Louisville Arthur Albiero
1 Women 3.20 Notre Dame Brian Barnes
1 Women 3.19 UCLA Cyndi Gallagher
1 Women 3.18 Iowa State Duane Sorenson
1 Women 3.18 Texas Carol Capitani
1 Women 3.17 North Carolina Rich DeSelm
1 Women 3.16 Duquesne David Sheets
1 Women 3.16 San Diego State Mike Shrader
1 Women 3.16 Vanderbilt Jeremy Organ
1 Women 3.15 Auburn Brett Hawke
1 Women 3.14 Cleveland State Paul Graham
1 Women 3.14 Manhattan Walter Olsewski
1 Women 3.13 UC Santa Barbara Gregg Wilson
1 Women 3.13 Florida International Randy Horner
1 Women 3.13 Oregon State Larry Liebowitz
1 Women 3.12 Buffalo Andy Bashor
1 Women 3.12 UNC, Asheville Elizabeth Lykins
1 Women 3.11 Wyoming Tom Johnson
1 Women 3.09 Liberty Jake Shellenberger
1 Women 3.09 Old Dominion Carol Withus
1 Women 3.04 UC Davis Barbara Jahn
1 Women 3.03 Colorado State C. Woodard

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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