Ten Cougars earn Scholar All-American honors

PROVO, Utah – Ten BYU swimmers and divers and the Cougar men’s and women’s teams earned 2016 Scholar All-American honors from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).

The Cougar men’s team had a 3.29 grade point average this past season and the BYU women’s team had a 3.24 GPA.

“This is the largest group of Academic All-Americans we have ever had,” BYU coach John Brooks said. “This says a lot about our athletes and where our program is going.”

Steven Richards (3.73 in health science), a senior backstroker and individual medley swimmer from McLean, Virginia and Rainer Ng (3.71, business strategy ) a junior from Singapore earned this same recognition in previous seasons.

Preston Jenkins (3.71, exercise science) a sophomore backstroker and IMer from Jacksonville, Florida; Ryan Sorensen (3.90, mechanical engineering pre-professional) a freshman breaststroker from The Woodlands, Texas; Connor Stirling (3.66, open major) a freshman sprinter/freestyler from Cave Creek, Arizona; and Luis Ventura (3.54, facilities management) a sophomore freestyler and butterflyer from Leon, Mexico round out the remaining six swimmers named to the honor.

Ali Tippetts-Kottcamp (3.94, exercise science) a senior diver from Orem was the only representative from BYU’s women’s team named to the recognition.

Diver’s from the men’s team include Matt Denkers (3.74, management) a sophomore from Fishers, Indiana; Kevin Dreesen (3.79, exercise science) a junior from El Cajon, California; and Jordan Tuckfield (3.89, exercise science) a junior from Sandy, Utah.

Dreesen was named first-team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on 1-meter, 3-meter and platform diving boards and Tippetts-Kottcamp was first-team All-MPFS on 3-meter and platform boards.

The four BYU divers qualified for nomination to the academic honor by participating in the Zone/Regional Diving Selection Meet in addition to their GPAs.

In order to qualify for the CSCAA Scholar All-America recognition, a team must have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher.