Several of GW’s aquatic athletes have been honored over the past week for their academic work outside of the pool. Seven members of the GW men’s water polo team were named last Friday to the 2009 Collegiate Water Polo Association scholar-athlete team, an award honoring both varsity and club-level water polo players with a cumulative grade point average above 3.2 during the 2009 season. It is the third such recognition for senior John-Claude Wright, who was previously honored in 2006 and 2007. Honoree and freshman goalie Cameron Illes’ in-season GPA between 3.71 and 4.0 was the highest on the team. Illes’ fellow freshmen Mike Mazzara, Nolan Lozinski, German Olano and John Paul Bezerra were also recognized, as was sophomore Alex Sotolongo.

More recently, Colonial swimmer Paola Leor was named to the Atlantic 10 women’s swimming & diving Academic All-Conference team earlier today. Leor, who maintains a 3.5 GPA and is majoring in international business, broke three GW records during last month’s Atlantic-10 conference championships and tied for third at the conference meet in the 200-yard individual medley.