MIAC Release

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Five Saint John's University swimming student-athletes earned Academic All-MIAC honors on Tuesday, June 21.

Those honored (listed alphabetically) include: 

-Junior Kenny Bergman (Overland Park, Kan./Shawnee Mission South), an accounting major with a 3.55 GPA;
-Senior Alex Ingulsrud (Fargo, N.D./Davies), a philosophy major with a 3.75 GPA.
-Senior Paul Knaak (Forest Lake, Minn./Stillwater Area), a history major with a 3.97 GPA;
-Senior Matthew McCormack (Rosemount, Minn.), an economics major with a 3.68 GPA;
-Junior Curtis Noecker (St. Paul, Minn./Highland Park), a computer science and music double-major with a 3.92 GPA.

Student-athletes must be a sophomore, junior or senior academically with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 on a 4.00 scale to qualify for Academic All-MIAC recognition. Athletically, swimming and diving student-athletes must place in the top 16 individually or participate on a relay team at the conference meet.

For the second time in the last three years, SJU led the conference with 63 male Academic All-MIAC honorees in 2015-16, six ahead of second-place St. Thomas (57). The Johnnies finished second in 2014-15, one honoree behind UST, and led the league with 57 in 2013-14.

Bergman defended his MIAC title in the 100-yard freestyle, the Johnnies' 17th in the event since 1976, at the MIAC Championships Feb. 18-20 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. He was also a member of the Johnnies' third-place 400-yard freestyle relay team and placed fifth in both the 50- and 200-yard freestyles. The Academic All-MIAC honor is his second consecutive.

A three-time Academic All-MIAC honoree, Knaak earned a pair of All-MIAC (top three individually) marks at the conference meet. He finished second in the 100-yard freestyle, 0.01 of a second behind Bergman, and took third in the 50-yard freestyle. Knaak was a member of two third-place relay teams, the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay, and the fourth-place 400-yard medley. He also claimed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle and was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District VI At-Large team in May.

Knaak was ranked as the No. 4 cadet in the country out of 5,577 ROTC senior cadets this past fall and served as the SJU Class of 2016's commencement speaker May 8.

Ingulsrud picked up points for SJU by placing seventh in the 100-yard backstroke and eighth in the 200-yard backstroke.

A two-time Academic All-MIAC honoree, McCormack was a member of SJU's third-place 200-yard medley relay team. Individually, he claimed seventh in the 100-yard butterfly, ninth in the 100-yard backstroke and 12th in the 200-yard backstroke.

Noecker finished 15th and 16th in the 100- and 50-yard freestyles, respectively.

The Johnnies placed second out of eight teams at the 2016 MIAC Championships, their best finish since 2003 (second). Bill Saxton was named the MIAC Men's Swimming Coach of the Year for the second time in his career (2003).