PVS swimmers excel in and out of the pool!
By Reach for the Wall Staff
Congratulations goes out to these PVS athletes who were named by USA Swimming to its 2020-2021 Scholastic All America Team and PVS Scholar Athlete! The USA Swimming application process was open from June 1-August 15th, with awardees announced in early September. To be considered for the PVS Scholar Athlete, an application was required to be submitted by October 15 with PVS announcing the honorees in early November.
USA Swimming 2020-2021 Academic Qualifications
- Grade completion requirement – applicant must have completed 9th, 10th 11th or 12th grade
- GPA Requirement – minimum 3.5 GPA for the current academic year
- A=4, B=3, C=2. If numerical grades are used, the following scale will be used unless the school’s letter grade conversion is given on the transcript: A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79. In calculating the GPA no rounding will be used – one decimal place only.
- Honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual credit college level academic courses will earn one half (.5) extra Grade Point. Grades for academic subjects only are calculated – history/social studies, English, mathematics, sciences, foreign languages, computer sciences, visual and performing arts if indicated as academic. A grade lower than a C in an academic subject will mean automatic rejection of the applicant. Grades for non-academic courses will NOT be calculated – art, band, choir, orchestra, health, driver education, physical education, and any other class marked non-academic on a transcript.
- There will be no special status designation for a 4.0 GPA other than for a national champion who also has a 4.0 GPA.
Pool Requirements
Applicants must have swum an individual pool time equal to a 2019 Winter Junior qualifying time in any individual event during the SAA qualifying period (September 1, 2020 – August 31, 2021) with qualifying times in SWIMS – list of times are posted on the USA Swimming website. A qualifying time will be available for selection from the SWIMS database during the application process. Only ONE time is necessary and only ONE application is necessary.
Para Swimmers
Applicants must have swum an individual pool time equal to or faster than the 2020-2021 Para Scholastic All American Standards in any individual event noted within their self-reported P1, P2, or P3 grouping during the SAA qualifying period (September 1, 2020-August 31, 2021, dates inclusive) with the qualifying times in SWIMS.
Only ONE time is necessary and only ONE application is necessary. A cap of 56 athletes will be named with 2/event/gender.
Open Water Swimmers
Applicants must have swum an individual pool time equal to or faster than the 2019 Winter Junior National qualifying time in the 800, 1000, 1500, or 1650 freestyle during the SAA qualifying period (Sep 1, 2020-Aug 31, 2021, dates inclusive) with the qualifying times in SWIMS AND participate in the Open Water National Championships held on April 16-18, 2021.
Breakout for PVS Athletes
The Eastern Zone had 286 swimmers recognized, 49 (or 17%) of whom were PVS swimmers. 8 teams were represented as follows: NCAP: 24, followed by RMSC: 9, Arlington Aquatics: 4, Machine: 3, Unattached: 3, The Fish: 2, All Star Aquatics: 2, Mason Makos: 1, and Occoquan: 1.
PVS athletes that earned USA Swimming All American (by last name, alpha):
PVS Scholar Athlete Recognition
PVS Scholar Athlete Criteria:
ELIGIBILITY: Open to all PVS/USA Swimming athletes who:
1. Have completed grade 9, 10, 11 or 12 during 2020-2021;
2. Have attained a 3.5 or higher grade point average (GPA) for the 2020-2021 school year; AND
3. Have achieved a 3.5, or higher, Event Standard Average in a minimum of five events.
NOTE: a maximum of two (2) ‘B’ times or one (1) ‘C’ time are permitted.
The above wording has been updated to clarify current PVS requirements for receiving this award. The GPA requirement is for the 2020 – 2021 Academic Year.
An applicant can have a GPA lower than 3.5 in a specific grading period, so long as the year-long GPA is 3.5 or greater. Also please note that per the PVS Board, modifications to these criteria will be considered to allow Athletes attending Fairfax County Schools to be judged on an equal basis with Athletes from other School Districts. Furthermore, Home‐Schooled Athletes shall be eligible to participate, provided that their Application is reviewed and approved by a Committee appointed by the PVS Board. We took the liberty to convert the pdf file provided by PVS into a spreadsheet you can filter and sort as you wish.
Note: The total number of honorees differs from the PVS list as we saw and removed some duplicate entries