COLCHESTER, Vt. - Eight Saint Michael's College men's and women's swimming & diving student-athletes qualified for College Sports Communicators (CSC) NCAA Division II Academic All-District honors on Tuesday. Four from each team were lauded, and were among 31 total from Northeast-10 Conference schools.
 
Senior Katie Dzambo (Windermere, Fla./Bishop Moore), juniors Rafael Kowal (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh/Alfred State), Gavin Nelson (Winona, Minn./Winona Senior), Arianna Petta (Brookfield, Conn./Immaculate), Connor Quirbach (Lowell, Mass./Chelmsford), Ashley Silveira (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk) and Livy Waranis (Narragansett, R.I./Narragansett), and sophomore Hunter Daily (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) all claimed honors. Dzambo, Nelson, Petta, Quirbach and Silveira were second-time qualifiers.
 
Daily earned five win this season, including four solo, before placing 13th in the 200-yard breaststroke, 15th in the 200-yard individual medley and 16th in the 200-yard freestyle at the NE10 Championship. He has placed on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll three times and has a 3.52 grade-point average as a biochemistry major.
 
Dzambo picked up seven relay victories as a senior captain and scored during six events at the NE10 Championship, including while helping the 400-yard freestyle relay place sixth. She is a five-time NE10 Academic Honor Roll qualifier and earned a 2023-24 Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA) Academic Achievement Award. The psychology major, who will graduate in just three years, holds a 3.88 GPA.
 
Kowal earned his second straight NE10 All-Conference second team finish as runner-up in the 500 free at the NE10 Championship this winter. He earned 26 wins, including 21 during individual events, and played a hand in six school records during the season while claiming top-five performances in all seven of his NE10 Championship events. Kowal has placed on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll all three semesters at Saint Michael's and nabbed a 2023-24 D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award. He has a 3.71 GPA as a civil engineering major.
 
Nelson won the 500 free against Maine Maritime Academy on Nov. 10 before studying abroad in Australia during the second semester. He has landed on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll all five semesters and claimed a D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award last school year. Nelson holds a 3.81 GPA as a data science major.
 
Petta took 19th in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly at the NE10 Championship to cap her junior year. The five-time NE10 Academic Honor Roll honoree landed a 2023-24 D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award and has a 3.87 GPA while double majoring in art education and art & design.
 
Quirbach won 13 events this year, with six in solo races, and had a hand in two school records. At the NE10 Championship, he qualified for finals in all three individual events and aided a pair of fourth-place relays. A two-time NE10 All-Conference swimmer, Quirbach was also named NE10 Academic All-Conference as a sophomore. He has qualified for the NE10 Academic Honor Roll five times, claimed a 2023-24 D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award, and holds a 3.91 GPA as a business administration and accounting double major.
 
Silveira won a pair of diving events this year before finishing sixth in the NE10 Championship one-meter diving competition. She landed the NE10 Elite 24 Award thanks to holding the highest GPA among competitors at the NE10 Championship and was an NE10 Academic All-Conference selection as a sophomore. A five-time NE10 Academic Honor Roll qualifier who also earned a 2023-24 D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award, Silveira has a 3.99 GPA as a double major in anthropology & sociology and international relations.
 
Waranis picked up a pair of victories this season while taking 13th in the 400 IM and 17th in the 200-yard backstroke at the NE10 Championship. She has landed on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll all five semesters and earned a D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award last school year. Waranis is a double major in elementary education and equity studies while holding a 3.88 GPA.
 
College Sports Communicators recognizes major contributors toting at least a 3.50 GPA by their sophomore seasons. Each school was able to put a maximum number of student-athletes forward for an award that previously necessitated voting. Instead, All-District honorees can now advance directly to the Academic All-America ballot, which still incorporates national membership voting. Through the Academic All-America program, CSC names Academic All-District and Academic All-America teams at each the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III levels, while the College Division team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools.