TicketsMarch 16, 2007
, -- senior swimmers Gerdien de Jong and Marcel Kleiner have earned BIG EAST/Aeropostale Scholar Athlete Awards, receiving $2,000 scholarships for graduate study.
de Jong, a chemistry major, posted a 3.87 GPA in the Fall quarter and is scheduled to graduate in the spring. A native of The Netherlands, de Jong posted an NCAA `B' time in the 50 freestyle at the 2007 BIG EAST Championships, finishing fifth, and helped the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams to fifth and fourth-place finishes, respectively.
Kleiner was named UC's Scholar Athlete of the Fall quarter after posting a 4.0 GPA. Holding a 3.93 GPA, he has been accepted into UC's MBA program for next fall. A native of , Kleiner led the Bearcats to a fifth-place finish at the 2007 BIG EAST Championships with three top-four finishes.
"`Student-athlete' is often used in a perfunctory manner but Bearcat swimmers Marcel Kleiner and Gerdien de Jong are the very embodiment of the student-athlete concept. They are team captains, NCAA provisional qualifiers, school record holders, BIG EAST Conference Championship finalists, and CSCAA Academic All-Americans," said head coach Monty Hopkins.
The graduation of Marcel and Gerdien will leave a tremendous void on the team. They are people who could be counted on in every situation. They were among the hardest workers during practice, top performers at meets and effective leaders on the team," continued.
The whole point of going to college is to develop a foundation for a future career and I can state, without qualification or hesitation, that these two have done everything possible to prepare for successful and rewarding careers. We will miss them a lot, but we are proud of their accomplishments and honored that they are Bearcats."