Feb. 17, 2005
EDISON, N.J - A total of 60 female athletes and 19 male athletes comprised the 2005 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Swimming and Diving All-Academic Team, with Fairfield University placing four swimmers on the team.
Kelly Steele (Chatham, N.J.) was named to the team for the third-consecutive year while Sean Killelea (Suffren, N.Y.) received the honor for the second time. Sophomores Brittany Hunter (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) and Tom Scappaticci (West Harrison, N.Y.) were each first-time selections.
A senior captain, Steele was also named to the MAAC All-Academic Team the last two seasons and holds a 3.34 GPA in Biology. This Dean Merit Scholar has been a Hunger Clean-up volunteer and is currently an officer with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Steele holds Fairfield's individual school-records in the 200-yard free and 200-meter free and currently is a member of six school-record-holding relay teams.
Killelea, a junior math major, carries a 3.44 GPA and is a second-time MAAC All-Academic Team selection. Killelea was named to the Dean's List for the fall '03 and currently holds the school-records in the 400-yard IM and the 400-meter IM.
Hunter is currently the most dominate member of the women's swimming team, holding 12 individual school-records and swimming as a member of five record-setting relay teams. This season, she has placed in the top-three of every individual event she has swam during dual meet action and has 19 first-place finishes on the year. The sophomore physics major holds a 3.55 GPA.
Scappaticci, an economics major, holds a 3.60 GPA and has been a consistent contributor to the men's team this season. Improving as the year has gone on, Scappaticci got his first win of the season in the Stags' final dual meet, taking first in the 500 free against Holy Cross.
To be eligible for the MAAC All-Academic Team, a student athlete must complete two semesters at their institution, be a significant starter or reserve and hold a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a 4.0 scale. Loyola College led all schools with 18 members named to the team. Marist had 11 athletes named to the team while Iona College had nine. Niagara had eight athletes named to the team while Manhattan College and Rider University both had seven. Canisius College, Siena College and Saint Peter's College each had five members of the team while Fairfield rounded out the team with four athletes.
The Stags complete their season this weekend at the MAAC Championships, hosted by Loyola College.
