The College Swimming Coaches Association has released its annual Scholar All-American awards, and I am proud to announce that 4 of our women have received Scholar All-American Honors and our Women’s Team was named a CSCAA Scholar All-American Team for Spring 2009.

Rising junior Marissa Morris (Tom’s River, NJ) has been named a Scholar All-American.  To be considered for this award, an athlete must have qualified for the NCAA Championships and achieved a GPA a 3.50 or higher.

Graduated seniors Erica Ellis and Joelle Hopf, and rising junior Jess Lester have been named Honorable Mention Scholar All-Americans.  For this, the athletes must have achieved an NCAA Consideration Time as well as a GPA of 3.50 or higher.

Our women’s team has continued to excel in the classroom, claiming a team GPA of 3.47 for spring 2009, which tied them for 16th in the NCAA among ALL division 3 teams.  They have been named a Scholar All-American Team yet again.

Many congratulations to all the recipients!

Scholar All-American article

Scholar All-American team article

Joelle Hopf and Erica Ellis, who both graduated this past May 17th from New Paltz, have accepted coaching positions at other colleges beginning in the fall.   Please extend your congratulations to both of them!

Joelle Goes to Ithaca

The Bombers of Ithaca College have hired Joelle for next season as a graduate assistant in women’s swimming.  She joins a program that won the 2009 UNYSCSA / Empire 8 Championships and finished 13th at the NCAA Division III National Championships.  She will serve as the assistant under Paula Miller, who has guided the Lady Bombers since 1984.  In addition to coaching, Joelle will also attend graduate school in Sport Management.

Erica Hired at Vassar

Cross-town rivals Vassar College have named Erica as a full-time assistant for the 2009-2010 campaign.  Both Vassar’s Men’s and Women’s programs finished 10th at the UNYSCSA Champioship Meet this past February.  Erica will assist underneath Interim Head Coach Paul Kueterman, who replaces long time coach Lisl Prater-Lee during her year of sabbatical.  Most notably, New Paltz will renew its long-standing rivalry against the Brewers when they face off at Vassar on Saturday November 21st.

IN SEASON PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

Women’s Swimming 2008-2009:

Senior captain Joelle Hopf

It was her last duel meet and her last duel swim as a varsity swimmer at SUNY New Paltz for Joelle Hopf.  And it was arguably here best performance in the Elting Pool.

The NP women hadn’t beaten Cortland in a duel since 2005, suffering 3 straight defeats including one at home back in 2007.  This year, big victories early in the meet put us up 97.5-71.5 heading into the breaststroke with a chance to clinch the victory.  In the field was defending SUNYAC Champion Taylor Houseman from Cortland and NP’s varsity record holder Becky Baker.

Joelle led the whole way.  Touching first at the 50 in 33.02, she managed to extend her lead in the 2nd 50 and finished in 1:08.57.  Her time was a personal best to date and also broke the New Paltz pool record.  The Hawks would go on win the final relay and claim a 120.5-84.5 over their rivals.

Joelle’s Performance in the 100 Breast has been named as In-Season Performance of the Year for 2008-2009.

Joelle finished her career as the school’s varsity record holder in the 200 Breast (2:23.58), a record she has held since November 2007.  She also is ranked 3rd all time in the 100 Breast, and was a member of the SUNYAC Champion 400 Medley Relay at the 2008 Championships.