Cooper McKenna Captures First-Team Academic All-America Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Cooper McKenna of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team earned first-team Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Communicators (CSC), the organization announced today.

The Academic All-America program recognizes student-athletes who combine athletic success with high academic achievement. McKenna was selected to the Division III Women's At-Large All-America team, which includes student-athletes from nine different sports on the three teams (ice hockey, golf, rowing, field hockey, lacrosse, gymnastics, water polo, fencing, and skiing).

McKenna was the leading scorer for a CMS women's water polo team that finished the year as the national runner-up, falling in overtime in the national championship game after McKenna tied the score in the final seconds of regulation. She tallied 59 goals and 78 points, while tallying five-goal games in the national finals and in a regular season win over Augustana. The Athenas finished the season with an 11-1 record in SCIAC, the program's best-ever conference record, passing the 7-1 mark of the 1997 team. 

After the season, McKenna was named a first-team All-American by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches for the second year in a row. As a sophomore in 2022, her debut season after the 2021 season was canceled due to the pandemic, she had 40 goals and 11 assists while helping CMS to a 12-2 conference mark.

In the classroom, McKenna carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a biology major at Claremont McKenna, one of only two student-athletes in the Class of 2024 at CMS to maintain a perfect GPA. She is an All-Academic honoree from the ACWPC and a SCIAC All-Academic Team selection. 

McKenna is the sixth CMS student-athlete to earn a spot on one of the Academic All-America teams this year, joining Brenna Bell of volleyball (second team), Josh Angle of men's basketball (first team), Augusta Lewis of women's swimming and diving (second team), Frank Applebaum of men's swimming and diving (third team) and Julian Sanders of baseball (third team). Cross country and track and field is still pending next week (Henry Pick and Meredith Bloss were both honored last year). 

In addition, McKenna is the 23rd student-athlete in CMS history to earn a spot on one of the Academic All-America teams, and the first women's water polo player. She is also the ninth CMS student-athlete to be chosen to the first team, joining Angle from this year and Paul Schulz (baseball, 1984), Bob Donlan (men's basketball, 2002), Harmony Palmer (softball, 2013), Kristin Lim (women's tennis, 2013), CJ Novogradac (baseball, 2018), Thomas D'Anieri (cross country/track and field, 2020) and Nicole Tan (women's tennis, 2020).