Three Michigan State swimmers and divers, Amanda Ling, Erin Szara and Travis Nitkiewicz, were named to the Scholar All-American list by the Collegiate Swimming and Diving Coaches Association for America, or CSCAA, for excelling in and out of the pool this year.
The award is given annually to student-athletes that maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher and received an invite for the national championship meet for their respective competition. Second-Team selections, also called honorable mentions, must have also earned a 3.5 GPA or higher and achieved a "B" time standard for the national championship according to the press release.
Ling was named to the First-Team while Szara and Nitkiewicz were honorable mentions.
This is not the first time that these three have been recognized for being transcendent above their peers in the classroom and in the pool. Szara and Nitkiewicz both earned Academic All-Big Ten Honors and were named Distinguished Big Ten Scholars.
They were both NCAA “B” qualifiers at the Big Ten Championship meet, meaning they just missed the NCAA Championship meet and could have been called to participate depending on the number of qualifications in each event.
This award tops off a tremendous career for Ling as a diver at MSU. She is now a four-time CSCAA Scholar All-American after she qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the women’s 1M diving competition. Ling also earned the prestigious Elite 90 award from the NCAA, which is awarded to the athlete with the highest GPA at each NCAA Championship event. Ling was also MSU’s female recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor.
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