Teams Earn Academic Accolades

Date July 12, 2005

PROVO -- Forty-five athletes from BYU's swimming and diving teams were recognized school- and nation-wide for maintaining an above-average grade point average (GPA) during the 2004-05 school year.

BYU Men's Swimming Head Coach Tim Powers said he expects his athletes to excel in their studies because there is life after swimming. "We assume everybody is here to get an education," Powers said. "They should take full advantage of this opportunity, and they're proving that they are."

The Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America ranked the BYU men's swimming team second in the nation academically with a 3.35 GPA out of 48 other men's collegiate swim teams, including Mountain West Conference (MWC) competitor, University of Wyoming who came in 23. The BYU women's swimming team was ranked 48 out of 71 teams with a GPA of 3.16. As a conference on the women's side, Texas Christian University, University of Wyoming and University of Utah followed, ranking 58, 62 and 70 respectively.

The MWC recognized 13 athletes from the men's and women's swimming teams with the Scholar-Athlete Award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or better. BYU's swim team Scholar-Athletes were led by senior Ryan Mullen who maintained a cumulative GPA of 4.0 in Chemical Engineering. Three divers from the men's and women's teams also received the honor of Scholar-Athlete.

Forty-one BYU swimmers were honored with the MWC Academic All-Conference Award for significant contributions to the team and maintaining a 3.0 GPA or higher. BYU also recognized these men and women as Cougar Club Scholar Athletes.

"Keeping up our academics is something we feel is very important," Powers said. "We're just here to help young men and women be all they can be."

MWC Academic All-Conference

Aubrey Low

Angela Nelson

Wendy Poppleton

Kimberly Rusk

Jeremiah Chai