March 20, 2007

The Missouri men's and women's swimming & diving teams were both named to the College Swim Coaches Association of America's Academic All-American lists for the Fall 2006 semester, as released by the organization earlier this month.

The 28-member Tiger men's team ranked 52nd with a 2.90 team grade-point average, while the 24 members of the Mizzou women's team had a combined 3.29 gpa - good for 29th nationally.

The men's team was the only Big 12 school listed among the 63 schools recognized with a 2.8 gpa or higher. On the women's portion of the list, which consisted of 97 Division I schools at 2.8 or higher, Missouri had the highest average of the three Big 12 schools, ahead of Kansas and Iowa State.

"The swimming and diving teams at Mizzou have been known to do well academically and we expect that from our student-athletes," Head Coach Brian Hoffer said. "We want to do well in the pool but we also make sure to focus on their classroom performance."

These numbers come on the heels of Missouri's nine men and 16 women named to the Academic All-Big 12 Teams last month. The 25 awards are a school record and just behind Texas' 27 for the most of any league member.

In the 15-years under Hoffer, Missouri has had a combined 271 Academic All-Conference selections for an average of 18.1 first and second team honorees per season.