Seven Cougar Swimmers Named CSCAA Academic All-Americans

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Six members of the BYU men's swimming/diving team and one member from the women's team were awarded the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Academic All-America honors.

Diver Aaron Russell and swimmer Randy Belliston were named CSCAA First Team Academic All-Americans.

Russell finished his BYU career with his second academic All-America award, while Bellison picks up his first academic honor.

Russell and Bellison both qualified this season for the NCAA Championships. Russell finished with a First-team All-America honor after placing fourth in the 1-M event and also earned Second-team All-America recognition after his 10th place finish on the 3-M.

Five other Cougars including Brent Parker, Chris Johnson, William Betz, John Malfatt and Kelli Einfeldt earned honorable mention academic All-America recognition.

In order to be eligible to receive CSCAA academic All-America recognition, the student-athletes must have a 3.5 GPA, while having their teams maintain at least a 2.8 GPA.

The BYU men and women's teams made the team academic all-American list with their team GPA's of 3.28 and 3.16 respectively.

BYU was one of two schools in the Mountain West Conference to have student-athletes receive such honors.

Utah was the other MWC school to receive academic honors with two athletes receiving honorable mention awards.