Kate Stiebler

2010 ACWPC Women's All-Academic Awards

DENVER, Colo. -- 97 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) women’s water polo players were honored among 289 total recipients by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) this week when they earned All-Academic Awards from the national coaching organization.

Student-athletes were recognized in three levels: 3.2 to 3.4 GPA (Excellent), 3.41 to 3.7 GPA (Superior) and 3.71 to 4.0 (Outstanding). The CWPA had 31 players honored in the Excellent category, 46 on the Superior roll and 20 Outstanding recipients as 68% of the league's honored players had a 3.41 or higher grade point average.

The number of recognized athletes is a dramatic increase over the 2009 honors in which the league garnered 89 awards, with 28 Excellent, 33 Superior and 28 Outstanding honorees. Further, it tops the 2008 (65 - 25 Excellent, 22 Superior, 18 Outstanding,) and 2007  (78 - 26 Excellent, 30 Superior, 22 Oustanding) lists of league honorees.

Overall, CWPA student-athletes comprised nearly 33.5% of the total recognized population, including 34.5% of the Outstanding, 40.7% of the Superior and 26.3% of the Excellent recipients, from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), independents and the Collegiate Water Polo Association, topping the other conferences in each category to remain the preeminent academic water polo conference in the nation.

In the team GPA standings, four of the top five teams in the nation made their home in the  Collegiate Water Polo Association as Macalester College (1st, 3.52), Harvard University (3rd, 3.43), Wheaton College (4th, 3.42) and Brown University (5th, 3.33) were among 10 CWPA programs recognized by the ACWPC.  Mercyhurst College (10th, 3.20), Indiana University (11th, 3.17), Grove City College (12th, 3.16), Hartwick College (17th, 3.10), University of Maryland (18th, 3.09) and Bucknell University (21st, 3.03) round out the league's selections as 25 programs in the nation recorded GPAs over 3.00.