SCIAC-Leading Nine Athenas Earn CSCAA Scholar All-America Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. - A total of nine members of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team earned Scholar All-America distinction from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America, the organization announced today.

Seven of the nine CMS winners also competed at the NCAA Division III Championships to earnfirst-team Scholar All-America honors, matching Pomona-Pitzer for league high honors, while two others received honorable mention Scholar All-America distinction. 

Honored with first-team accolades were junior Bryn Edwards (CMC, government and philosophy), senior Riley Hoffman (CMC, biology), freshman Augusta Lewis (CMC, undeclared), sophomore Natalia Orbach-Mandel (HMC, mathematics and computer science), senior Emma Stacy (Scripps, biochemistry), sophomore Janet Tran (CMC, biochemistry) and sophomore Allie Umemoto (CMC, politics and sociology). Earning honorable mention honors were senior Jacque Desmond (Scripps, media studies) and junior Claire Bacon-Brenes (Scripps, neuroscience).

First-team Scholar All-America honors are given to student-athletes who achieve a 3.5 grade point average or higher (either cumulative or during the spring semester) and compete at the NCAA Championships. Honorable mention distinction is given to student-athletes who achieve the minimum GPA and also achieve an NCAA "B" cut or compete at an NCAA Regional qualifier in diving. 

Lewis adds her Scholar All-America award to a long list of honors from her freshman season, including sweeping both the Swimmer of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year Awards in the SCIAC. She was an honorable mention All-America winner at the NCAA Division III Championships in both the 200 IM and the 400 IM, earning a 10th place finish in the 400 (and 12th in the 200). 

The other six CMS Scholar All-America winners were all honorable mention All-Americans at nationals in various relay competitions, with Orbach-Mandel capturing the honor in three of them. Tran, Stacy and Orbach-Mandel were part of a 400-yard freestyle relay team that picked up a 13th place finish at nationals, Hoffman, Umemoto and Orabch-Madel contributed to a 14th place finish in the 800-yard freestyle, and Edwards, Tran and Orbach-Mandel were part of a 200-yard medley relay team that came in 16th. 

Desmond earned third place finishes at the SCIAC Championships in both the one-meter and three-meter dives and competed at the NCAA Regional qualifiers where she came in fourth place in the one-meter, earning alternate status for the NCAA Division III Championships. Bacon-Brenes was an All-SCIAC swimmer in three events this season, including both breaststroke events, and has won five SCIAC titles in her three-year career.

In addition to its strong success in the classroom, CMS finished the regular season ranked No. 11 in the final TYR/CSCAA Division III poll and sent 11 swimmers to the NCAA Division III Championships.