AUSTIN, Texas— Colorado Mesa University sophomores Richard Schmiedefeld and Ben Vester were both named to the NCAA Division II Men's Swimming & Diving Academic All-America Teams as selected by College Sports Communicators, it was announced Wednesday.
 
Both of the Stuttgart, Germany natives were third team picks in their first year of eligibility for the awards, decided by a vote of CSC members around the country.
 
Schmiedefeld holds a 3.52 GPA and is majoring in business administration.  He earned six all-America honors, including five first team plaudits, this season and is now an 11-time all-American in his two years at CMU.  He is also a 7-time RMAC Champion and won three RMAC relay titles this year, while setting championship meet records in both the 200 and 800 free relays.
 
Vester holds a 3.80 GPA and is majoring in construction management.  He won three first team all-America honors at the NCAA Division II Championships placing third in the 800-yard freestyle relay, sixth in the 400 individual medley and eighth in the 200 IM while helping the Mavs to a third place team finish, their best ever national championship performance.
 
At the conference level, Vester swept the individual medley titles and helped the Mavs set a RMAC Championship record time of 6:27.43 in the 800 free relay.
 
He had also been voted as the RMAC's Men's Swimming & Diving Academic Athlete of the Year as the leader of the First Team Academic All-RMAC squad, which also included Schmiedefeld and six other Mavs.
 
The Maverick women also had two First Team Academic All-Americans in Kenya Meyer and Ada Qunell, it was announced on Tuesday.