Winners in the pool and the classroom...and good sports on the deck.

Springfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University's women's swimming and diving team headed into the 2009 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet today with a great deal of momentum in hopes of competing in the pool with the best in NCAA Division III. It was announced earlier this week how well the Tigers are competing in the classroom.

Wittenberg was one of 70 NCAA Division III teams to post a cumulative team grade point average of 3.0 or better to earn a spot on the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Team SPEEDO Academic All-American list. The Tigers ranked 50th on the list with a 3.23 team GPA for the fall 2008 semester.

That represents a slight increase in the team's cumulative GPA from the 2007-08 school year, after which the Tiger women gained a CSCAA Team Academic Award with a "Superior" rating with a 3.22 GPA. The Team SPEEDO Academic All-American list honors men's and women's swimming and diving teams that display excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.20 cumulative team GPA on a 4.0 scale.

"Once again, the student-athletes in our program have made me very proud," said Wittenberg Head Coach Natalie Koukis, who has earned two North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Coach of the Year awards in her four seasons at the helm of the program. "It takes a great deal of self-discipline to succeed as a collegiate student-athlete. It says a lot about the quality of the young women in our program that they consistently reach a high level of achievement both in the pool and in the classroom."

The Tigers finished the 2008-09 dual meet season with a 7-3 record. It was their fifth straight winning dual meet record.

Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photo By: Erin Pence

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Related Links: Women's Swimming and Diving Home Page