The ISU women’s swimming and diving team has earned Academic All-American status from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America after the team posted a combined grade-point average of 3.26 for the spring semester.

Additionally, junior swimmer Lauren Breunig was named an All-American honorable mention after achieving a 3.59 GPA and meeting the NCAA Championship meet consideration time.

Swimming coach Duane Sorenson said he believed this was the 16th time the team has received the honor.

“It’s a very nice honor,” Sorenson said. “It’s one of the goals we set each year to accomplish each semester.”

“It’s been a tradition and we want to continue that trend,” said diving coach Jeff Warrick.

Breunig said she wasn’t sure exactly how she felt.

“It was hard work, but it was worth it,” Breunig said.”Academics are important along with doing well in swimming.”

Sorenson and Warrick both said they were pleased to see the team raise its GPA after they posted 3.18 during the fall.

“If you are above a 3.0 for a team I think that is really good,” Warrick said.

“It’s always harder in the spring because that’s the championship portion of our season.”

“They’ve always been a strong academic team. That’s something that’s always been important for us because this sport won’t always be around to support them.”

Sorenson said academics are a strong point for the team and he attributes its academic success to a program he started eight years ago when he took over the head coaching position.

“It’s starts with our mentoring,” he said.

Sorenson said all incoming freshmen on the team are assigned an upperclass teammate who acts as their mentor for the year.

“I think that is something if you aren’t doing, then you’re missing the boat,” Warrick said. “This is something every team should be doing. Just being paired with an experienced person on the team who has been here is very beneficial; I think it just really helps them ease into the transition of being in college.”

Warrick also felt the mentors were good for the team because even though the coaches are available for help whenever they are needed, he thought it might be intimidating for the athletes to come and talk to them.

“They feel better about talking to someone on their level,” he said. “So it’s nice to have the upperclassmen there.”

Sorenson said the team also takes advantage of the Student-Athlete Services the athletic department provides.

Sorenson said Ed Banach is the team’s counselor and he “does a lot of work to help our women in the classroom.”

As for Breunig, she achieved the consideration time to qualify for the NCAA Championships, but was not invited to the meet. If she had, she would have been named to the academic All-American first team rather than the second.

Sorenson said a swimmer must meet the consideration time and achieve a 3.5 or better GPA for the semester to make the second team, and actually compete in the national meet to make the first team.

“It felt good to get that,” she said.

“It’s something to work at and it’ll make me work harder. Obviously I need to get a little bit faster in order to get in.”

Warrick said as far as his divers were concerned, they either accomplished the academic mark of 3.5 or they met the consideration score on the board.

“Hillary [Nichols] made the championships, but didn’t have the 3.5 GPA, and the others made it academically, but didn’t have the diving part of it,” he said.

“There would have been a few more mentions from both sides of the team had they achieved the other part.”

Sorenson said the team will try to do a little bit better come fall since they always like to improve upon the GPAs from past semesters.

Breunig plans on keeping her GPA right around there though.