July 13, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Along with winning a second straight BIG EAST Conference title, the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team excelled in the classroom, once again, during the 2005-06 season. The Irish finished tied for 15th among NCAA Division I swimming and diving teams with a 3.18 grade-point average on the year. That marked the 13th time that Notre Dame finished in the top-20 for team GPA. Along with the team recognition, five members of the squad earned All-Academic Honorable Mention distinction from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).
Senior swimmers Tim Randolph and Jamie Lutkus along with juniors Ted Brown and Tim Kegelman and sophomore diver Sam Stoner garnered 2006 CSCAA All-Academic Honorable Mention honors. With this latest accolade, Brown becomes the first student-athlete in program history to garner All-Academic honors from the CSCAA on three occasions, while this is the second such honor for Randolph and Kegelman and the first for Lutkus and Stoner.
Competitors who qualified for the NCAA Championships and had a 3.50+ GPA for the year were named All-Academic members, while student-athletes who had a 3.50+ and achieved at least one NCAA `B’ time but did not qualify for the NCAAs were named honorable mention.
Randolph earned all-BIG EAST honors in the 100-yard breaststroke and as part of the 200-yard medley relay team this past season. He posted a school-record mark and NCAA `B’ cut in the 100 breast with a time of 54.47. The 200 medley relay team also notched an Irish record time of 1:30.04. Randolph was a winner on 21 occasions during the season as he was a part of 16 relay titles and five more in individual events. He graduated in May with a degree in management from the Mendoza College of Business.
Lutkus concluded his Fighting Irish career in fine fashion by capturing the 400-yard individual medley BIG EAST crown in a school-record time of 3:52.07. On the year, the senior co-captain won six 400 IM races and one 200 IM event. He posted NCAA `B’ cuts in both of those events, just narrowly missing out on a chance to make it to the national meet in the 400. Lutkus graduated in May with a degree in aerospace engineering from the College of Engineering.
Brown posted all-BIG EAST marks in the 200 free and the 800 free relay at the 2006 conference meet. The 800 free relay team clocked in a school-record and NCAA `B’ cut time of 6:35.47 to take the BIG EAST title. Brown was victorious in a team-high 18 individual races during the 2005-06 season, along with teaming up to win eight relay crowns. He is enrolled in the College of Science as a biological sciences major with an anthropology minor.
Kegelman, who became Notre Dame’s first-ever swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships as he did so in 2005, copped all-conference honors as part of the school-record setting 200 medley relay squad. The rising senior tri-captain notched an NCAA consideration cut in the 100-yard butterfly last season as well. Kegelman is enrolled in the College of Engineering as a chemical engineering major.
Stoner came through with an all-BIG EAST performance off the three-meter board as he placed third to help the Irish win the conference title. The sophomore took first off the one-meter board five times on the year and he posted two more wins in three-meter competition. He is enrolled in the College of Arts and Letters.
Notre Dame has a long history of academic excellence, finishing among the nation’s top-20 in team GPA on 13 occasions since 1990. In the spring of 1999, the Irish led Division I with a 3.352 GPA.
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