The exhausting 18-to-20 hour per week training regimen includes swimming from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., weights from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and swimming again from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
So, you could understand if, on occasion, perhaps, there was some skepticism when University of Hawaii swimming coach Elliot Ptasnik was approached to let an athlete, citing test preparation, take a break from practice or cut short workouts.
But no more, not after their bond of trust was reinforced by the latest NCAA study that shows that UH women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams have been the campus leaders and among the highest nationally in their sports in the Academic Performance Ratings.
Even as they pile up conference championships in the pool, they are also winning academic honors.
The two-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s champions earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award for a perfect 1,000 rating for a four-year period (2015-16 through 2018-19) while the four-time MPSF champion women posted a 997.
Together they helped lift UH’s 18-team overall average to a school-record 984, topping the national average (983) for the first time in the 16 years that the NCAA has employed the APR.
“Eleven out of 18 teams having perfect (single-year) scores and our women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams posting record APR scores while defending their MPSF league championships is impressive,” athletic director David Matlin said. “The academic support team, led by Dr. Ron Cambra and Courtney Tsumoto, did an outstanding job to achieve record results during a year when our Nagatani Academic Center was closed.”
The APR is a metric used to show progress toward a degree and is calculated based on the number of athletes on scholarship and those who are retained and remain eligible for competition. A 930 score approximates a 50% graduation average, the NCAA says, and teams with a four-year score below 930 or a 950 average over the most recent two years, are subject to penalties, including a loss of scholarships or postseason ban.
“Academics is always a priority for us, we talk about it in team goal meetings and in our individual meetings,” said Ptasnik, who was an assistant at UH for three years before becoming head coach in July.
The pursuit extends beyond talk. “We allow them flexibility, whether it is getting out of workouts early or to miss practice (altogether),” Ptasnik said. “We have a great relationship and they are honest about letting us know when something big is coming up.”
The latest honors have also come in spite of the Nagatani Academic Center being closed due to water leaks. “We talk about success is not linear but that there will be changes and you have to improvise sometimes and they did a great job when we were out of the Nagatani Center,” Ptasnik said. “We’ve also gotten wonderful academic support from our department, tutors, mentors and, especially, academic advisor Justin Clapp, who is amazing.”
If there was a poster athlete for the swim teams this year it might have been Katrina Sudweeks who was a team captain, had a near-perfect grade point average, was a fundraising advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association and graduates with degrees in Public Health and Communicology.
“I am amazed by the great job our student-athletes, coaches and staff continue to do academically,” Matlin said.
Both in and out of the pool.
HITTING THE BOOKS
Multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores
Men’s swimming and diving 1,000
Women’s swimming and diving 997
Soccer 997
Men’s volleyball 995
Women’s tennis 993
Track and field 993
Women’s volleyball 989
Men’s golf 987
Cross country 986
Men’s tennis 984
Softball 984
Water polo 984
Men’s basketball 983
Baseball 979
Women’s golf 966
Women’s basketball 964
Beach volleyball 963
Football 949
Note: Includes single-season scores from the past four academic years (2015-16 through 2018-19)
Sources: UH and NCAA
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
