Maddie Ford ’21 named CoSIDA Academic All-American as swim teams rack up academic honors
Leading a women’s swimming and diving program that finished the academic year with an impressive 3.91 team GPA, Maddie Ford ’21 has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Division III Women's At-Large Team. The women's swimming standout, who is double majoring in computer science and art, was chosen to the second team.
With six members of the team registering a perfect 4.0 GPA, the Camels women's swimming program was recognized as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. To earn the distinction, a team needed to maintain a grade point average above a 3.0 during the 2020 spring semester; the Camels far surpassed that goal with their 3.91 team GPA.
In addition to the swimmers with 4.0 GPAs—which included every senior swimmer—12 student-athletes had a 3.9 or above and 14 were above a 3.8. Every Camel finished the semester with a 3.6 GPA or better.
Ford is the fourth women’s swimmer in program history to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America recognition and one of just 16 women’s swimmers in the country to receive the prestigious award this year. She has qualified for the NCAA Championships every year as a freestyle specialist, and was most recently recognized as a 2020 CSCAA All-American in the 200-yard freestyle and the 400 free. Ford was also a two-time NCAA All-American as a sophomore after finishing fifth in the 800 free relay, seventh in the 400 free relay, and helping to lead the Camels to a 15th-place standing nationally at the NCAA Championships that year. She is a six-time All-NESCAC honoree and a member of the school-record 400 and 800 free relay.
Outside of the pool, Ford is a scholar in the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, a Computer Science leader, and a member of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) on campus. She was recently honored with the Sally Liebig ’70 Prize, an award chosen by the Connecticut College Art Department. She is spending the summer working as an engineering intern at Beamable, a company that builds tools and a software development kit for game developers.
All six members of the women’s swim team who qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division III Championships, including Ford, garnered CSCAA Scholar All-America recognition. The award recognizes students from all divisions who achieved a grade point average of a 3.50 or higher and were invited to compete at their respective national championship. In addition to Ford, the awardees include Vaughn Ammon ’22, Brynn Campbell ’21, Tiernan Shea ’23, Anika Svoboda ’23 and Andrea Higgins ’21.
The women are just as impressive in the pool as they are in the classroom. The program has recorded four straight top-16 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and with six individual qualifiers for the annual national championship event in 2020, the team was poised to again finish in the top 16 before the event was canceled due to the pandemic.
With two student-athletes registering a perfect 4.0 GPA, the men’s swimming and diving program was also recognized as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.
To earn the distinction, a team needed to maintain a grade point average above a 3.0 during the 2020 spring semester; the Camel men finished with a 3.53 team GPA.
The men’s team recently placed sixth at the 2020 NESCAC Championships. The program has recorded eight top-five finishes, including six top-four finishes, at the league’s annual championship event over the last decade.
