Frank Applebaum Captures Third-Team Academic All-America Distinction

CLAREMONT, Calif. - A week after earning the national championship in the 200-yard butterfly for the second year in a row, junior Frank Applebaum earned Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Communications for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team, the organization announced today.

Applebaum won the national title this year in the 200 fly by breaking his own NCAA Division III record by five-hundredths of a second, touching the wall in 1:43.96. Last season, he took a half-second off the national record to win comfortably in 1:44.01, while this year he had to battle down the stretch to win by just .38 and repeat as national champion, the first repeat winner for CMS since Gary Simon won the 200 IM and the 200 breast in both 1997 and 1998. 

Applebaum also won three SCIAC titles before heading to nationals, taking first place in the 200 IM, the 100 fly and the 200 fly, while also contributing to two medley relay wins to help CMS to the team championship. His performance in the butterfly leg of the 400-yard medley relay was pivotal, finishing two seconds faster than his Pomona-Pitzer counterpart in a race that CMS won by just under one second. 

Outside of the pool, Applebaum carries a 3.72 GPA as a dual major in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) and psychology. He has been a member of the SCIAC All-Academic team both years at CMS, and is a Scholar-Athlete award winner from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. 

Applebaum joins Augusta Lewis (second team) as Academic All-America Award winners from the CMS swimming and diving program, while Josh Angle was named the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for Division III men's basketball last week. 

In addition to Applebaum's Academic All-America award, Anderson Breazeale, Thayer Breazeale and Alec Vercruysse each captured Academic All-District honors for the Stags.