Rochester, Mich. (August 18, 2004) ???C Oakland University???s women???s swimming and diving team distinguished itself in the classroom last year, earning one of the top team GPAs during the spring semester of any squad in the nation. Oakland???s women earned an overall GPA of 3.396 in the spring of 2004; 14th among all teams, men???s or women???s, nation wide. It was the highest ranking that the women???s squad has ever attained for its academic performance. Oakland???s performance was the top ranking one among teams from the Mid-Continent Conference and was better than all but two schools from the Big 10 and one the Mid-American Conference. Individually three members of the team also earned national recognition by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.
Tanya Korniyenko (Almaty, Kazakhstan) earned Academic All-America honors by virtue of having a GPA above a 3.5 and qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Melissa Jaeger (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and
Line Jensen (Silkeborg, Denmark) earned honorable mention honors by having a 3.5 or better and swimming an NCAA ???B??? time during the season. ???It is quite an honor for us,??? said Oakland???s head coach
Pete Hovland. ???To excel at that level and to be considered among the top academic teams in the country is something that the team has been striving to do on an annual basis; with the ultimate goal of becoming the top academic team in the country. We are very proud of their efforts; especially those of Tanya, Line and Melissa.???