80 CWPA Student-Athletes Receive 2009 Men's ACWPC All-Academic Awards

Ali Arat

2009 ACWPC Men's All-Academic Team

BRIDGEPORT, Pa -- 80 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) student-athletes recently received 2009 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) Men's All-Academic awards. 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 38.1 percent of all the athletes honored by the ACWPC this year, including 48.81% of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recipients.

196 NCAA and 14 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) student-athletes were named to the team as 39 athletes earned Outstanding honors (35 NCAA, 4 NAIA), 100 garnered Superior honors (94 NCAA, 6 NAIA) and 71 received Excellent accolades (67 NCAA, 4 NAIA).

For the CWPA, 18 athletes earned Outstanding honors as Brown University (Cyrus Mojdehi, Kent Holland, Corey Schwartz, Toby Espinosa), Mercyhurst College (William Page), George Washington University (Cameron Illes), Harvard University (Egen Atkinson, Bret Voith), the United States Naval Academy (Jackson Hummeldorf), Pennsylvania State University-Behrend (Nick Loukides), Iona College (Ryan Scott), Johns Hopkins University (Jeremy Maurer, Michael de Lyon, Kyle Maurer), Fordham University (Martin de Jong, Ali Arat) and 2010 Eastern champion Princeton University (Henry Fyfe) all placed at least one athlete on the coaching organization's highest All-Academic team.

35 CWPA athletes earned Superior honors as Mercyhurst (Ian Tasman, Andy Sekulski, Alex Moggridge), Johns Hopkins (Jeremy Selbst, Peter Sauerhoff, Reid Fox, Antonio Aguilera, Jamie Neuwirth), Fordham (Mark Connor, Cashel Barnett), Brown (Dean Serure, Brandon Yoshimura, Max Lubin, Marcus Gartner), Harvard (Kevin DiSilvestro, Thomas Bailey, Alex Thompson, Jeff Lee), Iona (Kristian Bocage, Cody Siemeck, Brandon Crane, Matthew Joslyn), Navy (Archie Warren, Dominic Valentini, Luke Baldwin), George Washington (Alex Sotolongo, John Paul Bezerra), Penn State-Behrend (Jacob Bernstein), Princeton (Eric Vreeland, Mike Helou, Peter Schulam, Gregor Horstmeyer), Bucknell University (Howie Kalter, Andrew Nelson) and Washington & Jefferson College (John Todd, Joe Weiland) received recognition.

Further, 27 players received Excellent honors as Mercyhurst (Ian Tasman, Andy Sekulski, Alex Moggridge), Johns Hopkins (Kyle Gertridge), Fordham (Mikey Edwards), Brown (Ryan Gladych, Zach Levko), Harvard (Nikhil Balaraman, Dan Furman, Mike Katzer), Iona (Ryan Oldendorf, Cameron Hudson), Navy (Justin Stevens, Joseph Moffit), George Washington (Nolan Lozinski, John-Claude Wright), Princeton (Matt Hudnall, Chris Cottrell, Jeff Cole, Dominic Pugliese, Matt Hale), Bucknell University (Paul Reamey, Spencer Richley, Brian Barron, Daniel Schwartz) and Washington & Jefferson College (Stephen Hilty, Christopher Bleuher) received nods.

Among teams recognized for achieving outstanding cumulative grade point averages, the Collegiate Water Polo Association dominated the standings as the Top Three teams and five of the Top Six programs in the nation reside on the East Coast.  Brown University led the nation with a 3.57 cumulative GPA, followed by Harvard University (3.411) and George Washington University (3.35) in second and third.  Pomona-Pitzer Colleges broke up the CWPA run at the top of the list, but Johns Hopkins University (3.29) and Princeton University (3.201) rank fifth and sixth, respectively.

Overall, the CWPA put 10 teams in the national rankings as Bucknell University (9^th, 3.08), Mercyhurst College (10^th, 2.96), Fordham University (13^th, 2.92), Iona College (14^th, 2.86) and Navy (18^th, 2.69) round out the 18 programs recognized by the ACWPC.  As a conference, the CWPA decimated the other leagues as Occidental College, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, University of La Verne, University of Southern California, University of California-Los Angeles and Pacific University were the only West Coast institutions to receive notice.