Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Justine Schluntz: Engineer grad, 9-time All American and she swims a 22.5 for the 50-free SCY! - Oh, she's a Rhodes Scholar now too!

I love what her engineering degree is in: Fluid dynamics. So apropos for an swimmer/engineer. I will go as far as saying that she is the best swimmer/graduate in the country.

What other sorts of adjectives do you use to describe how remarkable she is? Great? sublime? talented?They all fall short.

I will let the Arizona Daily Wildcat do the talking:

"... But after becoming one of only 32 people to be named a 2009 American Rhodes Scholar, it’s obvious that Schluntz is much more than just an athlete.

“Working with her on her essay and also reading her letters of reference, it wasn’t just ‘Hey she’s a great student’ or ‘Hey she’s a great swimmer,’” said Karna Walter, the Director of Nationally Competitive Scholarships at the UA.“It was as much, ‘Hey this is a woman of incredible character and leadership who has shown that in so many different ways in so many different settings.’“

Schluntz graduated from the UA summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering last May. The 2008 NCAA championship member and nine-time All-American is now a graduate student in fluid dynamics. ..."

[Link]

[Swim times and interests: Link]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had the pleasure of meeting her and she's really nice and down to earth. Auburn has a Rhodes Scholar this year too!

Tony Austin said...

Let's start a collection of these swimmers/Rhodes Schollars and I will post it on the blog, sort of like Pokemon cards!

Swimmers just may be the smartest athletes, but then again, I should exclude myslef!

TedBaker said...

When I swam at university, our swim team, men & women combined, had the highest average GPA of any organization - sports team, fraternity, sorority, anything - on campus.

I'm still connected to the programme, as an alumni, and that trend continues to this day.

Tony Austin said...

Well, I definitely was an exception to that rule. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Just look at all the lawyers and engineers in SCAQ. There is a correlation in the sense those fields, like swimming, require discipline and dedication and a persistent commitment to developing and refining technique. Or it could be the smart, hard workers of many fields know swimming is the best sport, period.

Tony Austin said...

We swim with an architect, a CEO of a 10-figure company, an IT pro, we swim with a bunch of doctors in Santa Monica, a lot of artists, a music executive, teachers, movie people, there's that model who is really fast with the goth boyfreind, and a lawyer in every lane...

Gosh, I swim with giants!

Education wise, I suppose I am the black swan of the bunch