FAYETTEVILLE – University of Arkansas women’s swimming and diving head coach Sean Schimmel and the Razorbacks continue to earn academic recognition this week.
The Razorbacks, who earned College Swim Coaches Association of America honors with a No. 12 ranking for their team grade point average earlier this week, had four individual student-athletes earn first-team honors and six others recognized with honorable mention awards.
To be selected for CSCAA Individual Scholar All-America Award, student-athletes must have a cumulative or term GPA of 3.5 or higher. Honorable mention selection must have a 3.5 GPA or higher and have achieved a “B” time standard but did not compete at the NCAA Championship.
Arkansas’ Scholar All-Americans are junior Nikki Daniels (finance), sophomore Nina Drolc (engineering), sophomore Anna Mayfield (accounting) and sophomore Madeline Monroe (engineering). The honorable mention honorees include sophomore Hannah Bortnick (journalism), junior Meghan Clark (kinesiology), senior Julia Kucherich (food, human nutrition and hospitality), freshman Aiden Lister (anthropology), senior Kesha Naylor (kinesiology) and sophomore Rachel Stoehr (supply chain management).
Schimmel and the Razorbacks accomplished many feats during the 2013-14 season. Arkansas was ranked in CSCAA’s top 25 ranking of all women’s Division I programs for the entirety of the season. The team debuted at No. 15 and ended the season at No. 24.
The team was 9-1 (3-1 SEC) in dual meets and set a new school record of 14 straight dual-meet wins from Oct. 26, 2012 to Nov. 9, 2013. The previous record of 13 was set from the 1990-91 season to 1991-92.
At the 2014 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships, the Razorbacks marked 40 personal records, swam 42 NCAA ‘B’ cut times, earned five NCAA zone-qualifying scores in diving, broke eight school records and clocked 10 record-breaking swims. The team also accrued its first NCAA ‘A’ qualification time in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Arkansas qualified seven swimmers for the 2014 NCAA Championships. Seven qualifiers tied the program record and Coach Schimmel’s career-high for number of women sent to NCAAs set last season, and swimmers participated in a record 13 different events. Over the course of the meet, senior Nicole Menzel clocked two season-best times in the 500 and 1,650 freestyle, junior Susanna White’s times in the 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle were Arkansas top-five times and the team registered all four relay swims as top-five times in program history.
For more information on Arkansas women’s swimming and diving, follow @RazorbackSD on Twitter.