The distinction of becoming your school's first All-America women's swimmer would be enough to satisfy most. Not UC Irvine's Chelsea Nagata.

"It is a big honor," said Nagata, who won All-America honors after she finished seventh in the 100-yard butterfly in 53.76 seconds at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in Athens, Ga., in March.

"I still feel I can improve a lot," said Nagata, a 2004 Maui High graduate from Kahului. "I'm looking forward to next year."

Nagata capped a brilliant sophomore season last month by being named UC Irvine's female athlete of the year. Earlier, she received two Big West Conference academic awards, and was selected co-Big West Athlete of the Year.

In the 100 butterfly finals, Nagata and seven other finalists were guaranteed All-America status as long they finished the race and did not get disqualified. She was the fourth fastest qualifier for the event with a school-record time of 53.18.

"I was really nervous," Nagata said. "I was like, 'don't false start.' I was just trying to calm myself.

"Usually I'm nervous because I want to win the race, or because I want to go for a certain time. But this time, I was more nervous because it was such a big meet, and I was racing against really fast girls. It was the nervousness of a new experience."

Nagata said she trained harder and was healthy this year for the NCAAs, where she finished 42nd in the 50 free and 34th in the 100 back preliminaries.

Last year, she fell down a flight of stairs and sprained her ankle about a week before the NCAAs and finished 33rd in the 100 fly, 65th in the 50 free and 47th in the 100 back.

"One of her big strengths is her underwater kick," said her father, Andrew. "So that (the injury) kind of limited her."

Nagata can credit her improvement to reaching a comfort level with UC Irvine's demanding practices, which feature heavy yardage, and hard intervals with little rest between drills.

"Last year, when I came in, I wasn't used to the training," Nagata said. "At each practice, I was trying to get through it. This year, I was better at it. I could try to go fast instead of trying to finish it."

In addition to her athletic achievements, Nagata is a top academic performer, earning Big West Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-Big West Conference honors. She has a 3.7 GPA, her father said.

Nagata said she is trying psychology this summer after taking two years of biomedical engineering classes.

"We'll see how that goes," she said. "If I like it, I want to switch to a psychology and social behavior major."

Nagata tied a school record for most individual conference titles in a single season, winning the 50 free, 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke (and swimming on the gold-medal 200 medley relay team) at the Big West Championships in February.

Nagata is one of two Maui swimmers at UC Irvine. Randall Tom, a 2004 Seabury Hall alum, swam on three winning relays — the 200 medley, 200 free and 400 medley — and placed third in the 200 individual medley at the conference championships.

Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.