April 29, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Twenty-three current University of Notre Dame athletes have earned All-America honors so far during the 1998-99 sports seasons:

— In women’s basketball, Ruth Riley earned third-team honors from Associated Press.
— In men’s fencing as awarded by the United States Fencing Coaches Association based on NCAA finishes, Gabor Szelle earned first-team All-America honors in sabre, Luke LaValle third team in sabre, and Brian Casas second team in epee.
— In women’s fencing, Nicole Mustilli earned second-team honors in epee, Magda Krol second team in epee, Sara Walsh second team in foil and Myriah Brown third in foil.
— In football, Autry Denson and Mike Rosenthal each earned second-team honors from Associated Press – and Rosenthal was a first-team pick on the Walter Camp Foundation squad.
— In hockey, Benoit Cotnoir was a second-team selection by the American Hockey Coaches Association.
— In women’s soccer as awarded by the National Soccer Coaches Association, Anne Makinen earned second-team honors, and Jen Grubb third team.
— In women’s swimming by the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association, Carrie Nixon, Liz Barger, Brittany Kline, Kelly Hecking and Shannon Suddarth all earned honorable mention All-America honors based on their NCAA performances in both individual events and relays.
— In track as awarded by the U.S. Track and Field Coaches Association, JoAnna Deeter in the 5,000, Jennifer Engelhardt in the high jump, Mike Brown in the pole vault, Antonio Arce in the mile and Marshaun West in the long jump all earned All-America honors

On the coaches side, Bailey Weathers in women’s swimming, Tim Welsh in men’s swimming, Caiming Xie in women’s diving, Jay Louderback in women’s tennis and Bobby Bayliss in men’s tennis were selected BIG EAST coach of the year in their respective sports.

In national coach of the year voting, Bob Davie in football, Muffet McGraw in women’s basketball and Dave Poulin in hockey all were finalists for those respective awards.

A number of Notre Dame coaches also reached noteworthy coaching milestones in 1998-99:

— Men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan won his 100th career game.
— Volleyball coach Debbie Brown won her 200th match at Notre Dame.
— Women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw won her 250th game at Notre Dame.
— Fencing coach Yves Auriol won his 400th career match.
— Men’s tennis coach Bob Bayliss won his 500th career match.
— Baseball coach Paul Mainieri won his 500th career game.
— And softball coach Liz Miller won her 800th career game.

A number of other Irish teams and individuals have been honored with academic-oriented recognition:

The College Sports Information Directors of America along with GTE annually select regional and national Academic All-America teams. Football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball have individual teams, and the remainder of the Olympic sports is included in at-large competition. Three individuals have been honored so far this season:

The national at-large team for fall and winter sports included three Notre Dame athletes — Jenny Streiffer from soccer on the second team, Forrest Karr from hockey on the second team and Phil Murphy of soccer on the first team.

Nominations have been submitted for spring sports teams — and those nominations include Jeff Perconte, Mike Naumann and Matt Nussbaum in baseball along with Danielle Klayman in softball.

Six individuals have been nominated for the spring at-large team — and they are Kerry Callahan from lacrosse, Jennifer Hall from tennis, Brad Hardin from golf, Brian Patterson from tennis, Alison Klemmer from track and Mike Brown from track.

Nominations also were recently submitted for NCAA post-graduate scholarships for sports other than football and basketball — and the nominees included Sara Walsh from fencing, Mike Brown from track, Phil Murphy from soccer, Kerry Callahan from lacrosse, Lindsay Treadwell from volleyball, Jennifer Hall from tennis and Benoit Cotnoir from hockey.

The College Swimming Coaches Association annually honors individuals and teams for their academic excellence and the Notre Dame men’s swimming team combined grade-point average ranked second in the nation.

Three other academic honorees were Tim Ridder in football who was named the State Farm Mutual Radio Student-Athlete of the year for the second straight season — and Forrest Karr and Aniket Dhadphale from hockey who were named to the CCHA all-academic team.

The University’s Office of Student Activities annually presents Student Leadership Awards to 10 individuals. In 1999, one of those 10 individuals was Lindsay Treadwell from volleyball.