June 17, 2004
Two Bulldog Swimmers Receive First-Team Academic All-American Honors
The CoSIDA academic all-American women's at-large team was announced today and two Truman athletes received first-team honors. Junior swimmers Diana Betsworth (East Moline, Ill./United Township) and Sarah Dance (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southeast) received the honor for the Bulldogs. Truman was the only institute with two first-team honorees.
Betsworth earned seven all-American awards at the NCAA swimming championship this past season, helping Truman claim its fourth straight NCAA Championship. She was a member of the national champion 400-medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay teams and helped the 400-yard freestyle relay come in second and the 200-yard freestyle relay squad come in fourth. As an individual, she was the NCAA runner-up in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard free-style events and she placed 5th in the 100-yard freestyle race.
Betsworth, who was named to the CoSIDA academic team for the first time, is an exercise science major with a 3.91 GPA. In her career, she has earned three academic all-MIAA and CSCAA academic all-American honors and has twice been named to the MIAA commissioner's academic honor roll. In 2002, she was named an MIAA presidential scholar.
Dance also earned seven all-American awards in helping Truman win the NCAA women's swimming championship. She was a national champion as part of the 800-yard freestyle relay team. n other relays, she helped the Bulldogs finish fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Dance was also second in the 400-yard IM race and third in the 200-yard Im, 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle events.
Dance, who has a 4.00 GPA while studying exercise science, also earned first-team academic all-American accolades last season. She is one of four repeat selections on the first-team in the college division (which includes Division II, Division III and NAIA schools) and one of four athletes on the first-team with a perfect GPA. Dance has been named every season to the CSCAA academic all-American list, an academic all-MIAA selection, a MIAA presidential scholar and has twice been named to the MIAA commissioner's academic honor roll.
Betsworth and Dance are the third and fourth Bulldog athletes to receive academic all-American honors during the 2003-04 season. In the fall, football player Tameem Yehyawi was a first-team selection and women's soccer player Sara Murray earned second-team honors.