Scots' Swim Teams Earn Prestigious National Academic Award

Monmouth, IL (07/02/2020) — For the first time in the history of the program, Monmouth College's men's and women's swim teams have earned Scholar All-America Team status from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches' Association of America (CSCAA) in the same season.

The Fighting Scots' women had earned the prestigious honor for the first time during the 2015-16 season and repeated the distinction for the 2019-20 spring semester after their fall semester 2.99 team GPA fell just one one-hundredth of a point shy of the required 3.0 team GPA.

Monmouth's men, which posted a team grade point average of 3.24 last fall to earn their inaugural award, completed the 2019-20 academic year by also earning the award in the spring. That marked the first time the Scots' men and women have won the award in the same semester.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CSCAA adjusted their usual criteria in the spring semester of a minimum team GPA of 3.0. After adjustments, and eliminating teams whose institutions adopted a pass/fail system in the spring, the honorees saw a nearly one-quarter letter grade increase.

Just completing his seventh season at the helm, Tom Burek has led the Scots to three Scholar All-America Team awards since 2015.

"I can't say enough about how hard this team works in the pool and the classroom," said a proud Burek. "The men and the women are very competitive with each other and the women's near-miss in the fall really inspired them. I'm sure they would have earned the award even without the COVID adjustments. I'm looking forward for that classroom competition to continue in the upcoming year."

Founded in 1922, the mission of the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America is to advance the sport of swimming and diving with coaches at the epicenter of leadership, advocacy and professional development.

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