Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Swimming and diving team sets standard for academic success
2/24/2020 10:35:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Word on the Herd
Marshall competes at the C-USA Championships this week
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – This week, the Marshall University swimming and diving team will head to Atlanta to compete Conference USA Championships. The four-day event at the McCauley Aquatic Center will showcase what the Thundering Herd women can do in the pool.
Outside of the pool, however, this Marshall team has already shown to be one of the best academic programs in the country.
"It speaks volumes to the kind of student-athlete we attract here at Marshall," said Ian Walsh, the team's head coach. "They have a very clear understanding that no matter if you are five-time Olympic Gold medalist Katie Ledecky or a student-athlete at Marshall University, at some point swimming and diving will be over.
"One of the many roles of a college coach is to teach life lessons through our sport so when that chapter of college athletics closes, you are able to walk away being a more confident, strong-willed woman prepared to tackle anything life may throw at you."
The Marshall swimming and diving program is annually one of the athletic department's shining examples of academic success. In the fall of 2019, however, this Herd program took its performance to a new level.
The swimming and diving team finished the semester with a 3.68 grade-point average, the highest in program history. There were nine student-athletes with a 4.0 GPA. Among the 20 team members, 15 had a GPA of 3.5 or higher. As a team, no Marshall program with six or more student-athletes had a higher GPA that semester.
"As the saying always goes: It takes a village," Walsh said. "I am so grateful to have an unbelievable support staff with Lisa Williamson and, specifically, Jordan Colliflower, who is our academic advisor. Jordan has done a tremendous job helping our student-athletes in providing the guidance and support needed to be their best in the classroom. We are so proud of our team members and what they've been able to accomplish in and out of the water. Our staff asks a lot from them and they've showed the ability to balance the academic and athletic workloads really well."
Last week, Conference USA released its 2020 Swimming and Diving All-Academic team. Of the six honorees, two were from Marshall: Angelica Di Marzio and Jordyn O'Dell.
Di Marzio is a three-time member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll, as well as a three-time recipient of the C-USA Academic Medal. She has earned a 3.97 GPA while double majoring in accounting and finance.
O'Dell is a three-time member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll and a three-time recipient of the C-USA Academic Medal. She has earned a 3.85 GPA while studying biomedical sciences.
Overall, the Marshall swimming and diving team is tied for the sixth-highest GPA among all Division I programs.
"When I took this position in October of 2018, I knew we could build something really special here," Walsh said. "Our first recruiting class this year of seven, we had six achieve a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. Athletically, we already had three of those athletes put up all-time top 10 performances in program history even before our conference championships.
"We are very proud of the academic excellence we've established here at Marshall, but we also want to be known for our competitiveness within C-USA and at the NCAA level. We are in a great position to do some special things in Atlanta next week at the C-USA Conference Championships."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
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