Lendrum, Owens, Floyd, Gustafson Make Academic All-American First Team

The Capital One Academic All-American program has released their list of recipients for the 2012-2013 academic year’s at-large team. The at-large team includes a collection of sports outside of those that are of the highest-profile at the NCAA level, but also sports that are generally the highest achieving academically.

In total, 19 swimmers and divers were named to the Division I Academic All-American team. The First Team includes repeat-offender Elizabeth Beisel, who was also named the Division I women’s Academic All-American of the Year, along with Tennessee’s Kelsey Floyd, Purdue’s Lauren Gustafson, USC’s Alex Lendrum, and Auburn’s Kyle Owens.

While some academic honors exist more as a tool for coaches to march out numbers in front of recruits, this one that combines academic and athletic success is widely viewed as the top academic honor available in the NCAA.

Owens won both the 100 and the 200 backstroke at the SEC Championships as a senior. Lendrum is a 5-time All-American at USC. Floyd graduates with 24 All-American honors, the most in program history, and was a part of all three NCAA Championship winning relays at the 2013 meet, and is at the least a member of the American World University Games squad this summer. Gustafson is part of a surge in the Purdue women’s program and a two-time NCAA Championship qualifier.

Other notable names on the lower teams include Arizona’s Kevin Cordes, one of only two sophomores from across the entire at-large grouping to make the list, plus Georgia Olympians Andrew Gemmell and Shannon Vreeland. There was plenty of representation from the SEC across the six squads (8 names in total from the conference), including three Florida Gators – Beisel, Cameron Martin, and Brad deBorde.

Connor Jaeger from Michigan, a 2012 Olympian and double NCAA Champion in 2013, made the men’s 2nd-team.

See the full Division I Academic All-American teams here, with the swimmers pulled out below.