March 20, 2007

AMHERST, Mass. - Senior Mary Jenkins (Acton, Mass.) of Massachusetts and Chris Ekimoff of St. Bonaventure have been named Student-Athletes of the Year in women's and men's swimming & diving, respectively, in voting conducted among the Conference's sports information directors.

Jenkins helped lead the Minutewomen to a second-place finish at the 2007 Atlantic 10 Championship, held Feb. 21-24 at the Flickinger Athletic Club in Buffalo, NY. The senior placed second in the one-meter dive with a score of 479.80. She also finished third in the three-meter dive with a 521.20 tally.

A member of the 2006 A-10 Academic All-Conference Team, Jenkins posted a 4.0 grade point average for the Fall 2006 semester - one of only two UMass swimmers to do so. For her career, she sports a 3.81 GPA as a kinesiology major.

She is the first ever UMass swimmer/diver to be named the leagues Student-Athlete Of The Year.

Jenkins is joined on the A-10 women's swimming & diving Academic All-Conference team by teammates Samantha Demty (Seekonk, Mass.) and Melissa Pond (Wayland, Mass.); Richmond's Emily Bateman and Lauren Beaudreau, who was named the Most Outstanding Performer at the 2007 Championship; Kristin Colton of Fordham; La Salle's Katie Gifford; Emily Grobmyer of St. Bonaventure; Xavier's Lindsay Jackson; Melissa Johnson, Lauren Stephens, Katrina Streiner, and Liz Yager of Duquesne; and Jenny Lutzen and Emily Oberjohn of Saint Louis.

For Demty and Pond, this was the first time in their careers to be selected to the academic all-conference team.

"We are extremely proud of our three student-athletes. They each represent the finest in what we look for out of student-athletes at UMass," said head coach Bob Newcomb.

As a team, the UMass Minutewomen finished the past fall with above a 3.0 GPA earning them distinction as a College Swimming Coaches Association Of America (CSCAA) Academic All-America Team.

At the 2007 Atlantic 10 Championship, Ekimoff won gold in the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.76), while earning bronze medals in the 500-yard freestyle (4:35.76) and 1,650-yard freestyle (16:00.85). The native of Webster, NY, also swam the anchor leg of the 800-free relay and the 200-free relay, capturing bronze in a time of 6:48.18 and placing fifth in 1:24.66, respectively. He also nabbed third in the 400-medley relay while swimming anchor leg, finishing in a time of 3:25.28, and swam the second-leg of 400-free relay, placing fourth with a time of 3:06.41. In all, he ranked fourth at the 2007 A-10 Championship with 52 individual points. The Bonnies finished second at the A-10 Championship.

An accounting major, Ekimoff has a 3.70 grade point average. He is joined on the men's swimming & diving Academic All-Conference team by teammate James Wood; Eric Bugby, Scott Darwin, and Ian Walsh of Duquesne; Brad Byars of Saint Louis; Fordham's Donato Callara and Ben Marzolf; Sean Connors-McBride and Karo Isajan of La Salle; Xavier's Dave Janszen and Matt Krouse; Ryan Sheatsley of Rhode Island, John Weaver of Massachusetts; and George Washington's David Zenk.