Thinking and swim caps went hand-in-hand for the Smoky Hill girls swim team during the 2024-25 season, as its members earned the 10th-highest cumulative Grade Point Average in the country according to the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association.
Since 2002-03, NISCA has recognized boys and girls teams from across the country with 12 or more members for elite academic achievement and this season 120 girls teams were honored and broken down into Gold (3.75 or higher), Silver (3.5 or higher) and Bronze (3.34 or higher) in a list released Wednesday.
Coach Scott Cohen’s Smoky Hill team accrued a 3.936 cumulative GPA — which landed it a Gold Scholar Team award — which was two-tenths higher than in the 2023-24 season, when it ranked sixth among the teams that submitted credentials to NISCA. The Buffaloes also won Gold Scholar awards in the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons as well.
Previously, Smoky Hill had four members of its senior class — Ella Ambruso, Morgan Goodrich, Julia Kaiser and Brianna Obot — honored as NISCA Academic All-Americans (see story, here).
Smoky Hill finished 12th at the Class 5A girls state swim meet in February.
One other Colorado girls program — Monarch — earned Gold Award status for the 2024-25 season, as the Coyotes checked in with a team GPA of 3.862.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
