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Tulane's Caprio Given Spirit of Service Award

After concluding her collegiate career last month in helping guide the Tulane University women’s swimming and diving team post its best Conference USA finish in a decade, Green Wave senior Cari Caprio  was named one of 16 recipients of the C-USA Spirit of Service Award on Wednesday.

The C-USA Spirit of Service Award is designed to recognize the community service efforts of the league's student-athletes, based upon significant community service, good academic standing and participation in their elected sport. The Spirit of Service Award is presented three times throughout the academic year with Wednesday's recipients representing the conference's winter sports of men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track and field, and women's swimming.

As a senior, the native of Mason, Ohio, posted a career-best time of 24.46 in the 50 free and season-best marks of 53.36 in the 100 free and 1:55.00 in the 200 free. She tallied a pair of second-place individual finishes in the 100 free, coming in runner-up vs Arkansas-Little Rock on Oct. 12 and at North Texas on Jan. 18.

Caprio was also a key member of 200, 400 and 800 free as well as the 200 medley relay teams. She also helped the 200 free relay team post a season-best 1:33.95 at the C-USA Championship on Feb. 27, which stands No. 5 in Tulane history.

In the classroom, she sports a 3.737 cumulative grade point average in the A.P. Freeman School of Business and is on pace to graduate in May. Caprio was honored as one of the April Tulane Scholar-Athletes of the Month and is a three-time member of the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll and Tulane’s 3.0 Club. As a freshman, she earned the C-USA Academic Medal honors after posting a GPA of 3.75 or better.

In addition to her performance in the athletic and academic arenas, Caprio has served as a Community Service Representative on the Tulane Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for consecutive years and has also been active in Wave Days and Shadow A Student-Athlete Day – programs designed to expose New Orleans area youth to the collegiate environment while conveying a message that college is an attainable goal and a partnership where local youth are paired with a student-athlete to allow them to attend class, meetings and practices, respectively.

She also helped raise money for Devon’s Den – an effort to raise funds for paralyzed former Tulane football player Devon Walker – as well as participate in the Second Harvest Food Drive. During the Green Wave’s annual training trip, Caprio and the Tulane team spent their off day stuffing “Joy Jars” with toys and activities which were given to children hospitalized with life-threatening illnesses.

Caprio and the Green Wave enjoyed a solid season in their first season under the direction of head coach Katie Robinson, assistant coach Sarah Woodbury and diving coach Chris Devine. Tulane finished sixth in the 2014 C-USA Championship after scoring 463 points – 90 more than the year prior, the third-highest total by the program in a conference meet and the most since the Wave scored 729 en route to the 2005 C-USA crown.

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