Two of the Aurora area’s most well-rounded girls swim teams — Smoky Hill and Grandview — were again recognized for success outside of the pool as both had honorees on a list from across the country recently honored with the distinction of Academic All-Americans.

Annually, the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) honors top student-athletes from across the country as Academic All-Americans, which are defined as graduating seniors and lettered that season with a high school program (in swimming, diving or water polo), while they also must have a minimum Grade Point Average of 3.750 on a 4 point scale or 93.7500% of the grade scale their school uses for 7 semesters/11 trimesters.

Coach Scott Cohen’s Buffaloes continued their tradition of classroom success coupled with prowess in the water with a total of four honorees — same as in 2025 — as Kaiya Ricketson, Greta Smolenski, Mia Waleski and Cameryn Walkup were honored. Three of the four helped Smoky Hill to a 12th place finish at the 5A state meet.

The Academic All-American honor further strengthens the accomplished prep resume of Walkup, a University of Wyoming signee who is coming off placing in two individual and two relay events. She placed fifth in the 200 yard freestyle and 12th in the 500 free and combined with Smolenski on both the 13th-place 400 yard freestyle relay (along with Mya Noffsinger and Caroline Kaiser) as well as on the 11th place 200 yard freestyle relay (with Kaiser and Morgan Goodrich as well).

Grandview’s Academic All-American nod went to Mikaela Heckel. Heckel swam a variety of strokes for the Wolves, but did not qualify for the 5A state meet.

The five Aurora honorees were part of a contingent of 19 Colorado Academic All-Americans, with the majority coming from Fossil Ridge, which had six of those selections. Visit sentinelcolorado.com/preps for the complete list of Colorado honorees.

NISCA will also honor Scholar Teams as well as All-American performers in boys and girls swimming in soon-to-be-released lists.

Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports

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