The Hope College women’s swimming & diving team has earned College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America honors for the 2015-16 winter semester.

Coach John Patnott’s Flying Dutch claimed the recognition for the eighth consecutive year and 13th overall.

To be selected as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team, programs must have achieved a grade point average of 3.00 or higher during the semester. Top teams were recognized for both large teams of more than 22 women or 21 men and small.  

The Flying Dutch recorded a combined 3.57 grade point average while producing a national champion in 3-meter diver Sarah Sheridan and finishing second in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association standings.

Patnott said his honorees have their priorities in the right place.

“They are student-athletes,” Patnott said. “We have nine workouts a week; two workouts a day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and one on Wednesday. They rarely miss practice for school work because they are excellent with time management. I cannot remember when our women's team had a GPA below 3.5. I couldn't be more proud of them, a great group of student-athletes.”

The Flying Dutch are one of 658 swimming and diving teams who representing 388 colleges and universities as Scholar All-America teams. It is only the second time in the CSCAA program’s 30- year history of the program that more than 600 teams.

Founded in 1922, the CSCAA is the oldest organization of college coaches in America. It is a professional organization of college swimming and diving coaches dedicated to serving and providing leadership for the advancement of the sport of swimming & diving at the collegiate level.