34 BYU Swim and Dive Student-Athletes Earn Academic All-MWC

PROVO -- Tuesday the Mountain West Conference announced the winter and spring Academic All-Conference award winners. 149 student-athletes from BYU were named to the list with 34 of them belonging to the swim and dive teams.

Sixteen student-athletes from the men’s team were recognized as well as 18 from the women’s team.

“We take pride in academics at BYU and recognize that there’s life outside of swimming,” said BYU head coach Tim Powers. “The athletes know that what they do in class will serve them for years to come.”

To be eligible for this recognition, student-athletes must finish at least one academic term while at BYU and receive a 3.0 or higher grade point average. Athletes must also be starters or significant contributors to their teams.

“I’m really pleased. We are consistently at the top of the line as far as the conference goes, it’s our tradition,” BYU diving coach Keith Russell said. “I hope that others can see the value and importance we place on our teams.”

The BYU swim and dive teams came in second of the conference with 34 Academic All-Conference winners while Wyoming took first by three, totaling 37. Other teams in the conference include TCU with 24 winners, UNLV with 21, Air Force with 17, New Mexico with 17, Colorado State with 16 and SDSU with eight.

BYU led the conference in total numbers of student athletes recognized with New Mexico following with 167. Fall semester, BYU totaled 67 Academic All-MWC winners and 149 for winter semester.

Men’s Swim and Dive award winners

Danny Bates

Austin Brown

Travis Day

Jeffrey Ferrell

Chad Fong

Matthew Hopper

Christian Keil

John Kendrick

David Mason

Justin Morin

Hayden Palmer

David Scott

Brandon Watson

Women’s Swim and Dive award winners

Sara Jayne Baldwin

Dayna Christensen

Samantha Crist

Kelsey Dickson

Kirsty Ferrell

Alina Fong

Amanda Heninger

Kelsey Higginson

Tawni Jones

Melissa Manser

Michelle Menezes

Natasha Menezes

Erin Pabst

Ali Siggard

Meagan Stone

Taryn Toolson

Emily Woods

Amy Xu