The 2014 America East Women’s Swimming & Diving team consists of 12 academically and athletically driven student-athletes from all five sponsoring member institutions. Each nominee must be at least in sophomore standing academically, have compiled a minimum 3.3 GPA and have competed in at least 50 percent of the team’s 2013-14 contests or be a significant reserve.
Sophomore Selina Ng (Farmingdale, N.Y.) has a cumulative GPA of 3.54 in Accounting at Binghamton University. She earned an America East Winter/Spring Honor Roll nod in 2013 and has been a member of the Binghamton AD Honor roll (3.3 and above) all three semesters as a Bearcat. In addition, Selina is an active member of SAAC. This past season, Ng earned a bronze medal in the 2014 America East Championship in the 400 medley relay. This season, she recorded the sixth-fastest time in program history in the 100 and 200 fly. Ng won a total of five races in 2013-14, including sweeps in the 100 and 200 fly against both Marist and Drexel.
A two-time Maine Scholar-Athlete, junior Naja Harvey (Orono, Minn.) earned a spot earlier this year on the Commissioner’s Honor Roll with a 3.63 GPA in Communications. She broke the school record, pool record, America East record for an “NCAA B” cut time at the America East Championship in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.9) to place her fourth overall. Harvey also set a new school record in the 200-yard breaststroke and matched her 50-free record from last season at the conference meet.
UMBC sophomore Corinna Darelius (Rye, N.Y.), the America East 2014 Most Outstanding Diver, accumulated a 3.49 GPA in her first year and a half at UMBC while studying for a degree in engineering. She has earned Semester Academic Honors in each of her first two semesters for her stellar work in the classroom. In the 2014 league championship meet, she was honored with the diving title after sweeping the two competitions with tallies of 235.30 in the one-meter and 261.70 in the three-meter. Darelius, a five-time Diver of the Week honoree (three - 2013-14, two – 2012-13), competed in her second-straight NCAA Zones meet, which she qualified for while swimming in Coral Springs, Fla. to meet the Zones standard. She scored high enough at the NCAA Zones to move onto the finals round, a first for a UMBC female swimmer.
Catherine Frediani (Ellicott City, Md.) has compiled a 3.85 GPA in general studies, helping her be named to the Dean’s List in her first semester at UMBC (Fall 2012) and earn a spot on the President’s List for the Spring 2013 semester for garnering a spotless 4.0 GPA. Frediani was selected as the America East Swimmer of the Week for the first time in her career on Jan. 14 after winning the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events in UMBC’s meet with Howard. She placed 11th in the 200 freestyle, 12th in the 200 fly and 13th in the 200 IM at the conference championships.
Patty Hallberg (Severna Park, Md.) has accumulated a 3.86 mark in in psychology coupled with a minor in biological sciences in her four years at UMBC. She has been named to the President’s List three times for having a perfect 4.0 semester GPA in addition to being named to the Dean’s List twice and receiving Semester Academic Honors once. Hallberg is also an active member in The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Her athletic achievements include reaching the finals for the 400 IM, placing fifth overall, at her final America East Championship meet. She recorded season-best times in each of her events at the conference championships.
Junior Wildcat Nicole Anderson (Dover, N.H.) touts a 3.72 GPA in English Literature and has earned a spot on the Dean’s list every semester. She is a member of the UNH Honors Program, has earned an Academic Dean’s Scholarship and is a founding member of the UNH Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International Honor Society. In the pool, she has a myriad of medals collecting four silver and three bronze, which includes a silver in the 100-yard backstroke at the league championship meet, in which she swam to a 56.53 finish. Anderson was also a member of the third-place 200-yard medley relay (1:44.10) at the conference championship.
New Hampshire sophomore Bettina Caspersen (Lyngby, Denmark) earned a 3.55 GPA in general studies to help her earn a spot on the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll (2012), be named to the Dean’s List at UNH in 2013 and earn High Honors (Fall ’13). She is an active organizer at the Nordic Study Abroad Conference Team (2014), an Environmental Advocate for Congreve Hall (2012-13) and a member of S.I.G.N.A.L. Her athletic achievements have included nine victories overall, including three in the 200 breast, three in the 100 breast, two 200-yard medley relays and one 400-yard free relay. She also notched 11 second-place and six third-place finishes on the 2013-14 season.
The four-time America East Swimmer of the Week (Nov. 15, ‘11, Jan. 17, ‘12, Nov. 13, ‘12, Feb. 5, ‘13), Katie Mann (Prince George, British Columbia), of UNH has made the Dean’s List every semester since freshman year enroute to earning a 3.60 GPA in English. She was honored as the Swimming & Diving America East Scholar Athlete in 2013 and named an NCAA academic All-American that same year. Her list of athletic achievements is astounding as she earned the 2013 ECAC Swimmer of the Year recognition and was honored as the Philip Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com Women’s Division I Swimmer of the Week (Feb. 19). She has collected numerous gold medals in 2014, including the 200-Yard IM (1:59.12) and 400-Yard IM (4:12.91), in which she set conference records. She set UNH program standards as well as ECAC Championship marks throughout her career. In a 200 breaststroke time trial, the junior split a 1:02.17 at the 100 mark and finished the race with a new school mark and NCAA provisional standard of 2:10.30, ranking her 19th nationally in Division I.
Senior Lauren McCandless (Macungie, Pa.) of New Hampshire has collected two Swimmer of the Week recognitions in her four years as a Wildcat. Her impressive 3.66 GPA in Cellular/Molecular Biology has earned her a spot on the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll in both 2012 and 2013. McCandless’s academic work also has her inducted in to the National College Athlete Honor Society, Chi Sigma Alpha (2013). In 2011 she racked up numerous recognitions as a freshman, including the America East Rookie of the Year award, was named to the America East All-Conference Team and was named a CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major All-America Honorable Mention. Over her four years competing at the America East Swimming & Diving Championship, she racked up the most points among all league swimmers (215) to earn the inaugural David Alexander Coaches’ Award.
Diver Nicole Zahka (Medway, Mass.), a junior from New Hampshire, has earned a 3.36 GPA in Business to help her grab a spot on the Dean’s List three-times (Fall ‘12, Spring ‘13, Fall ‘13) and the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll once (2013.) She has notched first-place finishes in the three-meter dive vs. Rhode Island (224.99), Bryant (232.70) and CCSU (232.70), and the one-meter dive vs. Rhode Island (214.34). Zahka also earned a bronze in the three-meter dive at the America East Swimming & Diving Championship (222.60).
Junior Ilsa Feierabend (Madison, Wis.) of Vermont sports a 3.72 GPA in Communication Sciences and Disorders and was named to America East honor rolls in 2011-12 (Academic) and 2012-13 (Commissioner’s). She earned all-conference honors at the 2014 America East Championships after finishing third in the 200 back in a time of 2:01.89, the third-fastest event time in UVM program history. Feierabend notched the Catamounts’ top times of the season in the 500 free (5:01.20) and 200 back (2:01.89), and collected the team’s second-fastest mark in the 100 back (57.59). She earned 10 individual first-place finishes on the season with seven of those victories coming in backstroke events.
Vermont junior Elena Melloni (Burlington, Vt.) has posted a 3.95 cumulative GPA as an electrical engineering major and was named to the 2012-13 AE Commissioner’s Honor Roll. She has earned two individual first-place finishes on the season, including the 200 free vs. Siena and 200 back vs. CCSU/Merrimack. Melloni posted 13 top-three finishes in individual events and registered Vermont’s second-fastest time of the season in the 200 back (2:03.70) and fifth-fastest in the 100 back (57.87).
Student-athletes worthy of consideration are nominated by member sports information directors and voted on by a committee of SIDs, academic advisors and faculty representatives from all nine member institutions.
