Pittsburgh, Pa. – Six student-athletes from the Duquesne University swimming and diving team earned a spot on the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) All-America Team. Senior
Haley Scholer, juniors
Sydney Severini and
Ashley Felitsky, along with freshmen
Ashley Freel,
Brianne Dempsey, and
Sierra Snow, were all recognized with this prestigious honor. Each of the six was named to the All-America Second Team.
To qualify for First-Team Scholar All-America, student-athletes must have earned a GPA of 3.5 or higher and participated at their national championship. Second-Team selections, must have also earned a 3.5 GPA or higher and met a "B" time standard for the national championship or qualified for a diving zone qualification meet.
Out of the 11 Atlantic 10 teams that feature women's swimming and diving, Duquesne stood out by placing more than twice as many student-athletes on the All-America Team as any other program in the conference. The next closest was St. Bonaventure, which had three selections.
Scholer, a native of Jamison, Pa., earned her degree in marketing while maintaining an impressive 3.93 cumulative GPA. At this year's Atlantic 10 Championships, she delivered a standout performance, collecting five medals, including three in individual events. She successfully defended her title in the 200-yard backstroke, winning gold for the second straight year with a personal-best time of 1:54.96, which set a new school record and met the NCAA B Cut standard. Scholer also claimed silver in the 100-yard backstroke with another personal best of 53.63 and took bronze in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:00.37. Her success continued in the relays; she anchored the 800-yard freestyle relay team to a second-place finish on the opening day and helped the 400-yard medley relay squad set a school record (3:39.92) en route to another silver medal.
A junior from Wood-Ridge, N.J., Severini has excelled both in the classroom and in the pool, maintaining a stellar 3.98 cumulative GPA while studying speech pathology. At the Atlantic 10 Championships, she earned two medals, playing a key role on the 400-yard medley relay team that set a school record with a time of 3:39.92 and secured a silver medal. She also delivered a standout individual performance on the final day, capturing bronze in the 200-yard breaststroke with a personal-best time of 2:11.92, setting a new school record and achieving an NCAA B Cut. Severini carried that momentum into the CSCAA National Invitational Championships, where she placed fourth in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:13.37. Earlier in the season, she demonstrated her dominance by winning the 200 breaststroke in a tri-meet against West Virginia and Villanova, clocking in at 2:16.56.
Felitsky, a junior diver from Cranberry, Pa., is a finance major who has maintained a strong 3.90 GPA. As Duquesne's top diver this season, she competed in both the one-meter and three-meter events. At the NCAA Diving Zones, she delivered a standout performance in the one-meter dive, placing 17th with a score of 239.75 over six dives, ranking highest among all Atlantic 10 competitors. She also took part in the three-meter event, earning a score of 194.95. This season marked her third career appearance at Zones for the one-meter and her first for the three-meter. At the Atlantic 10 Championships, Felitsky placed eighth in the one-meter dive with a score of 212.80. She also had a strong showing at the WVU Tri-Meet, capturing silver in the one-meter (253.86) and bronze in the three-meter (253.55).
Freel, a native of Bloomington, Ind., capped off an impressive freshman season with a perfect 4.00 GPA while pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. She made an immediate impact in the pool, earning Atlantic 10 Most Outstanding Rookie honors, becoming just the third freshman in program history to receive the award. At the conference championships, Freel delivered a standout performance, collecting three medals, setting a personal best, and contributing to a school record. Her highlight came in the 100-yard butterfly, where she struck gold with a time of 53.00, setting a new school record and achieving an NCAA B Cut. She followed that with a silver medal in the 200-yard butterfly, clocking a personal-best 1:58.97, now the second-fastest time in program history. Freel also played a key role in the 400-yard medley relay team, which earned silver. She now holds the program record in the 100-yard butterfly and ranks second all-time at Duquesne in the 200-yard butterfly.
A freshman diver from Shavertown, Pa., Dempsey made an immediate impact in her debut season while excelling academically with a perfect 4.00 GPA as a physician assistant studies major. She qualified for the NCAA Diving Zones in the one-meter event, where she placed 56th out of 81 competitors, outperforming several divers from Power Five programs in her first appearance. Dempsey matched that score at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship, posting a 208.25 in the one-meter dive. Her season also included strong showings in dual and invitational meets, highlighted by a third-place finish in the three-meter dive (249.70) against Cleveland State and George Mason. At the WVU Invitational, she placed 14th in the three-meter with a score of 214.80. Earlier in the season Dempsey finished with a pair of third-place finishes against Marshall, scoring 244.28 in the one-meter and 248.48 in the three-meter.
Snow, a freshman from Ijamsville, Md., is pursuing a degree in cybersecurity studies and has earned a 3.80 GPA in her first year at Duquesne. She received All-America honors following a standout performance at the Atlantic 10 Championships, where she claimed the silver medal in the 200-yard backstroke with a personal-best time of 1:55.91—an NCAA B Cut and the second-fastest time in program history. Snow also contributed to the 800-yard freestyle relay team that earned a second-place finish on the opening day of the championships, clocking in at 7:15.75. She continued to impress at the CSCAA Time Trials, posting the team's top time in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.97), and later helped the 800 freestyle relay squad to a seventh-place finish at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship with a time of 7:22.21. Additionally, she holds the sixth-fastest time in Duquesne history in the 100-yard backstroke at 55.16.
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