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Cooper McKenna had 70 goals for the Athenas this season
Cooper McKenna had 70 goals for the Athenas this season

Cooper McKenna Repeats as First-Team Academic All-America Selection

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 for the second year in a row, the organization announced today.

The Academic All-America program recognizes student-athletes who combine athletic success with high academic achievement. McKenna graduated with a 4.0 in biology from Claremont McKenna this spring, while earning first-team All-America honors for the third straight season (after missing her first year due to the pandemic). 

McKenna finished the 2024 campaign with 70 goals, just five off the team lead, and won 33 of her 42 sprints. She scored at least one goal in each of the first 28 games this season, with a high of six in a win over CSU Northridge. For her three-year career, she tallied 169 goals and 218 points.  

CMS finished the season with a 20-11 record and reached the national championship game for the second year in a row. McKenna also helped the Athenas to their best SCIAC finish ever (11-1) in 2023, and their best-ever SCIAC record over a two-year span (21-3 in 2023-24). 

McKenna becomes the tenth CMS student-athlete to earn Academic All-America honors this season, including seven in the spring. Georgia McGovern (first team) earned it in the fall with the volleyball team, and Josh Angle (first team, men's basketball) and Frank Applebaum (second team, men's swimming and diving) were honored in the winter.

McKenna is one of only 10 CMS student-athletes to ever earn first-team Academic All-America honors, and joins Angle as the only two CMS student-athletes to ever earn it twice. 

In the spring, four tennis players captured the honor, with Advik Mareedu (first team) and Ian Freer (third team) earning it for the Stags, and Lindsay Eisenman (second team) and Alisha Chulani (second team) taking it for the Athenas, while Julian Sanders (second team) was honored for the second year in a row for the baseball team and Natalie Bitetti (second team) captured it for the cross country and track and field teams.