NORFOLK, Va. – For the second straight season, the University of Sioux Falls Women's Swimming Team has earned College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America honors for achieving a GPA of 3.0 or higher. A year ago, USF had the top GPA (3.8) in NCAA DII and excelled again in 2018-19 with a 3.47 GPA as the team continued to assert a standard of excellence in competition and in the classroom.

The USF Women's Team placed third at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships and a program-best 20th at the NCAA DII Championships. A total of 480 schools and 780 men's and women's teams from across NCAA, were honored in an announcement by the CSCAA today. USF's total was above the medium of 3.45 for women's teams.  
 
"I am extremely proud of our USF swimming student-athletes.  Earning Team Academic All-American honors is another major accomplishment for this team this season," said USF Head Swimming Coach Chris Hamstra. "Our student-athletes have exhibited outstanding time-management, focus, prioritization and good old-fashioned hard work in achieving this recognition. It is an exciting time for us here at USF.  I could not be more honored to be a part of this program and work with these incredible student-athletes as well as our outstanding faculty," he said.

For the third time in its history Emmanuel College led all Division II programs, earning a 3.80 GPA. In total, eighty-three teams met the mark, four more than the record of seventy-nine in the fall of 2018.

The USF Swimming Team rallied to finish third in the NSIC Championships for a second straight year. USF, which advanced six student-athletes to the NCAA DII Championships on March 13-16, was led by sophomore Cassie Wright who was named "Swimmer of the Meet." Both Wright, who is a two-time All-American, and freshman standout Ella Johnson qualified individually for nationals. At the meet, USF broke four NSIC meet records, recorded seven NCAA 'B' cuts, one NCAA 'A' cut, set five school records and six swimmers posted personal-best results. Wright set championship records in the 200 backstroke, 100 backstroke and 100 IM. Johnson set a school and conference record in the 100 butterfly and set a school mark in the 200 butterfly.

The CSCAA will release its individual Scholar-Athlete recipients next week. Founded in 1922, the CSCAA – the first 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.