The Monmouth College men’s and women’s swim teams have made the grade with the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). The Fighting Scots men and women were recently named Academic All-American teams by the CSCAA. Only 66 men’s teams and 81 women’s teams were named to the list based on a team’s semester grade point average.

The Monmouth women’s team GPA of 3.205 and the men’s 2.860 GPA placed them 62nd and 59th, respectively, in NCAA Division III. The women’s team also received the honor the previous semester.

Lake Forest junior Maggie Rezac earned All-American honors Thursday (March 8) for the fourth time in her career by placing sixth in the 1-meter diving competition at the 2007 NCAA Swimming & Diving National Championships in Houston, Texas. She finished sixth in the same event as a freshman and seventh last year. The 3-meter competition will be held on Saturday.

Rezac followed Thursday’s performance with a third-place finish in the 3-meter diving competition, making her a five-time All-American. With her points alone, Lake Forest placed 29th in the nation as a team.

Lake Forest junior diver Maggie Rezac (right) will be the Midwest Conference’s lone representative at the 2007 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving National Championships. The event, which is hosted by the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, unfolds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday March 8-10.

Rezac won the second and third MWC titles of her career in February after sweeping the 1-meter diving and 3-meter diving events at 2007 MWC Championships, including an MWC-record score of 493.80 on the 1-meter board. Rezac has already earned All-American honors three times in her career after placing sixth in 1-meter diving in 2005, which she followed with seventh- and eighth-place finishes in 1-meter and 3-meter diving, respectively, at last year’s NCAA Championships.

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The Monmouth women’s swim team has made the grade with the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). The Fighting Scots women were recently named an Academic All-American team by the CSCAA. Nearly 300 squads were named to the list based on a team’s semester grade point average. Monmouth’s team GPA of 3.238 placed them in the top 50 nationwide in Division III.

Grinnell kept most of the hardware on campus this weekend, as the host of the 2007 Midwest Conference Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships swept the team titles and had a trio of student-athletes receive yearly conference awards.

In all, five conference records fell during the weekend, including four on the women’s side. Grinnell’s Valerie Stimac, the MWC Women’s Swimmer of the Year, played a part in three record-breaking performances, helping the Pioneer 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle and 800 freestyle relay teams set new MWC marks. Lake Forest’s Maggie Rezac, who was named the MWC Women’s Diver of the Year, set a new record in one-meter diving on Friday. Stimac, who also won three individual titles, and her teammates captured Grinnell’s ninth straight team title and 18th overall.

Grinnell’s Garnet Smith and Nate Wittnam were named the MWC Men’s Diver of the Year and MWC Men’s Swimmer of the Year, respectively, after leading the Pioneer men to their sixth consecutive MWC title and 30th all-time. Carroll’s Taylor Pechauer delivered the lone record-breaking performance among the men, setting a new mark in the 100 breast stroke on Saturday.

Monmouth head coach Keith Crawford was the MWC Men’s Coach of the Year after the Fighting Scots to a second-place team finish and Lawrence’s Kurt Kirner was the MWC Women’s Coach of the Year as the Vikings also finished as the runner-up.

2007 MWC Award Winners

2007 MWC Individual Event Champions

The Grinnell men’s and women’s swimming & diving team will look to extend their conference championship streaks on their campus this weekend, as nine MWC institutions descend on Grinnell, Iowa to compete in the 2007 Midwest Conference Swimming & Diving Championships. The event takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday February 9-11 and a complete event schedule is available on page two of this release. The 2007 MWC Swimming & Diving Championships also mark the first league championship event to be broadcast on MWCTV (www.midwestconference.tv), as internet broadcasts of each day’s finals will be available live with full video and audio. Friday’s diving finals will air at 1:30 p.m. (See below for more details)

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Lake Forest junior swimmer Michael Ojdana (right) set a new Midwest Conference record in the 500-yard freestyle on Saturday, December 2 at the CollegeSwimming.com Classic in Kenosha, Wis. Ojdana finished the race with a time of 4:40.98, topping Lawrence’s Daniel Hurley, who had set the previous MWC record in 1999 with a time of 4:41.01.

Lake Forest Athletic Director Jackie Slaats announced that Dan Shelley (right) has accepted the position of Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving Coach at Lake Forest. Shelley replaces seven-year head coach Alec Webster, who was recently hired to direct the program at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Shelley spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He worked with both the men’s and women’s programs, directed swimmers in each distance group, and was also involved in coordinating the Bears’ dryland and weight training programs.

Prior to working at Brown, Shelley was an assistant coach and admissions representative for a year at Hope College, his alma mater. During his time as a student-athlete at Hope, Shelley earned NCAA Division III All-American honors in 1996 and 1998.

The Monmouth women’s swim team was recently named an Academic All-American team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). The academic squads were named based on the team’s semester grade point average. The team’s GPA must be at least 2.8 in order to be considered for recognition.

Monmouth’s team GPA of 3.10 placed them in the top 100 nationwide in Division III. This is the second CSCAA award Keith Crawford’s team has received this year after being named to the list during the first semester of their season.