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102 CWPA Student-Athletes Named to 2008 Men's ACWPC All-Academic Team
2009 ACWPC All-Academic Team (PDF)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- 102 Collegiate Water Polo Association men's varsity student-athletes were named to the 219-member 2008 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic Team. To be eligible, athletes must achieve a 3.2 grade point average and are divided into three categories: Excellent (3.2-to-3.4), Superior (3.41-to-3.70) and Outstanding (3.71-to-4.0).
Overall, the CWPA accounts for nearly half of all the athletes honored by the ACWPC this year at 46.6%, including 48.1% of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recipients.
212 NCAA and seven NAIA student-athletes were named to the team as 44 athletes earned Outstanding honors (43 NCAA, 1 NAIA), 95 garnered Superior honors (91 NCAA, 4 NAIA) and 80 received Excellent accolades (78 NCAA, 2 NAIA).
For the CWPA, the standings are top heavy as 26 athletes earned Outstanding honors as Brown University (Toby Espinosa, Marcus Gartner, Kent Holland, Bryan Russell, Corey Schwartz), George Washington University (Alex Sotolongo), Harvard University (Egen Atkinson, John Kolb, Bret Voith), Iona College (Ryan Scott), the United States Naval Academy (Chase Hansen), St. Francis College (Nicola Djuric, Stefan Gencic, Louis Hamwey, Dusan Milanovic, Pal Pasztrai, Richard Polgar, Pretag Predin, Nemanja Pucarevic, Tamas Toth), Gannon University (Jamison Anton, Greg Nelson), Johns Hopkins University (Michael De Lyon), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Forrest Funnell, Brian Gardiner) and Penn State University, Erie-The Behrend College (Keith Yaegle) all placed at least one athlete on the organization's highest All-Academic team.
42 CWPA athletes earned Superior honors as Brown University (Nico Fort, Mike Gartner, Grant LeBeau, Hank Weintraub, Brandon Yoshimura), Bucknell University (Gabriel Heiber, Howie Kalter, Alex Lampley), Fordham University (Mark Connor, Martin DeJong), George Washington University (Connor Lynagh, David Zenk), Harvard University (Jay Connolly, Mitch Denti, Jeff Lee, Alex Thompson, David Tune), Iona College (Carlos Cannon, Cameron Hudson, Matthew Joslyn, Adam Neid, Nick Velasquez), the United States Naval Academy (Luke Baldwin, Taylor Sultz), Princeton University (Mike Helou, Eric Vreeland), St. Francis College (Boris Plavsic, Filip Sasic), Gannon University (Ben Syme), Mercyhurst College (Jake Coin), Johns Hopkins University (John Barrett, Chris Hutchens, Peter Sauerhoff, Jeremy Selbst, Arya Zarinsefat), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Gavin Darcey, Rob Kalwarowsky, Palmer Rosemond), Penn State University-Erie, The Behrend College (Jacob Bernstein, Derek Seiber) and Washington & Jefferson College (John Todd) received recognition.
Further, 34 players received Excellent honors as Brown University (Zach Levko), Bucknell University (Alex Lovell, Andrew Nelson, Paul Reamey, Spencer Richley), Fordham University (Luke Forand, Scott Nemecek, Tim Will), George Washington University (Sergei Shev), Harvard University (Nikhil Balaraman, Dan Furman, Mike Katzer), the United States Naval Academy (Joe Moffit, Dominic Valentini), Princeton University (Jeff Cole, Chris Cottrell, Alex Edmunds, Gregor Horstmeyer, Matt Hudnall, Douglas Wigley), St. Francis College (Or Gil), Gannon University (John Krakowski, Kyle Kuser), Mercyhurst College (Andrew Schonhoff, Andrew Sekulski), Johns Hopkins University (Antonio Aguilera, Josh Kratz, Jamie Neuwirth), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mark Artz, Devin Lewis, Matt Perkins, John Preis, Mike Smith-Bronstein) and Washington & Jefferson College (Steve Hilty) received nods.
Among teams recognized for achieving outstanding cumulative grade point averages, the Collegiate Water Polo Association dominated the standings as Brown University and St. Francis College registered the highest grade point averages in the nation at 3.52, .24 points higher than Stanford University and fellow CWPA member Princeton University which tied for third. Johns Hopkins University rounds out the leage representatives among the 10 teams that garnered 3.05 or higher GPA's as the Blue Jays finished seventh with a 3.15.
The Collegiate Water Polo Association and Western Water Polo Association are tied for the most teams in the Top 10 as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (3.25), University of California-San Diego (3.11), Occidental College (3.07) and Santa Clara University (3.05) the WWPA were honored. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) rounds out the honored teams as Stanford and the University of California were also recognized by the coaches organization.
