COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Richmond swimming and diving was honored this week by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) as a Scholar All-America Team for the seventh year in a row.
This year, the squad improved its spring team grade-point average over the previous spring, finishing with a 3.41 GPA over the term for its 23 members. This academic achievement came with the team winning its fifth-straight Atlantic 10 Conference Championship in February, the 13th in the past 14 years for the Spiders.
The CSCAA has designated a record 406 collegiate swimming and diving programs as Scholar All-America Teams. The recognition comes as a result of the programs’ classroom performance in the past semester. It is the first time in the program’s 30-plus year history of the program that more than 600 teams, representing 406 institutions received the designation.
CSCAA executive director Joel Shinofield was understandably boastful about his sports’ success. “Academic scandals have clouded college sports the past year,” he explained, “but not only did we have a record number of teams, not one of our programs is subject to APR penalties. This shows that across the board, our coaches and teams’ are serving the mission of their universities and athletic departments.”
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.”
To be selected as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team, programs must have achieved a grade point average of 3.00 or higher over the Spring semester.
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.
Swimming news courtesy of University of Richmond Swimming & Diving.
