AbouAssaly, Macomber, Geiger, Hellman, Mohrfeld recognizedby National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association of America.

The high school boys swimming season has been over for almost two months now and the girls season ended in early November, but the accolades keep rolling in the the Burlington High School swim teams.

Five Grayhounds three boys and two girls were recently selected to the National Interscholatstic Swimming Coaches Association of America Academic All-American team.

Elena AbouAssaly and Sarah Macomber were selected for the girls team, while Colby Geiger, Wyatt Hellman and Jacob Mohrfeld represent the BHS boys.

In order to qualify for selection, a student-athlete must meet the time requirements in their swimming events and maintain at least a 3.75 grade-point average.

Im so excited about this. Its so cool that we had the opportunity to apply for this, said AbouAssaly, who is planing to major in physiology with a minor in music at the University of Iowa. Its really cool that we have so many seniors eligible to apply for it and get it.

I wasnt even aware of it until a couple days ago when I got an email, said Hellman, a senior at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Fort Madison. Considering I didnt start swimming until my freshman year and I spent that year swimming at the YMCA, thats a pretty big accomplishment. I only swam three years for Burlington ad I showed a lot of improvement. I think it was worth quitting basketball for.

I was really proud of all of my girls, BHS girls swim coach Mark Shepherd said. Its always tough when you are out for a sport to keep your head in the game and keep up good grades in the classroom. Thats a good job on their part.

All five student-athletes had to learn to manage their time wisely to find success both in the classroom and in the pool.

I really enjoyed my sport, but being able to keep up my grades and being an All-American is a great honor, said Geiger, who is set to enter the CNC programming field of study at Southeastern Community College. You learn early on how to manage your time to get your homework done. Every night I had homework, I tried not to plan anything so I could go home right after practice and do my homework. I tried to get as much done in school as I could, especially on nights when we had meets.

Academically I took classes at Holy Trinity, but i also took some courses at Burlington and a couple at Fort Madison, Mohrfeld said. I have even been taking some automotive classes at SCC this year. I took a good mix of people to be successful.

It says a lot about those three individuals, BHS boys swim coach Jeff Kristensen said. Their work ethic in and out of the pool is tremendous. But that's also true about many student-athletes as we've see with the recognition of teams recently for their overall GPAs. It's an award that looks at their individual cumulative grade-point average for four years of high school. It's tough to maintain that grade-point average with all the other distractions they have.

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Five BHS swimmers garner national honors - Burlington Hawk Eye