Only five teams in the country who submitted their qualifications to the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) were as accomplished academically as the Smoky Hill girls swim team.
Coach Scott Cohen’s Buffaloes achieved a sparkling 3.934 cumulative team Grade Point Average for the 2023-24 season, which was the sixth-highest among the teams that entered. Smoky Hill also was among 77 teams nationally (with at least 12 members) to finish above 3.750, which landed it NISCA’s Gold Scholar Team award. Recently, the program also won Gold Awards for the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons as well.
Helping the cause for the Buffaloes — who finished 18th at the Class 5A state meet in February — were three graduating seniors who achieved Academic All-American honors as well in Alana Behrens Fassrainer, Tess Durrell and diver Christianna Duthie. Both Smoky Hill swimmers qualified for state individually in at least one event and Duthie made it on the diving board.
Kaitlyn Hafer, Avery May, Kate Mullin, Keira Vail, Reema Wagh and diver Tanvi Jitta of Grandview also achieved Academic All-American status, which required a graduating senior to letter with the varsity team and hold an individual GPA of 3.750 or better on a 4-point scale.
Hafer, Vail and Jitta were individual state qualifiers and helped coach James Boone’s Grandview team finish sixth in the final 5A standings. Jitta placed 12th in the 1-meter diving competition, while Hafer (a University of Idaho recruit) placed fifth in the 100 yard breaststroke and 20th in the 200 individual medley and Vail — who signed with San Jose State University — took fifth in the 100 yard freestyle and seventh in the 50 free.
Both Hafer and Vail swam on the fifth-place 200 yard medley relay team for Grandview, while Vail was part of the third-place 200 freestyle relay squad.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
