Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Of the many accomplishments that resulted in Emilio Abreu becoming the first international student-athlete Alumnus to be inducted to IUP's Hall of Fame, what would you rank number-one? Is it his becoming an All-American in a total of 12 events in his three years of NCAA Division II competition? His winning nine
Pennsylvania State Athletic conference championships?
 
Or is it Abreu's setting a host of IUP team records, nearly all of them standing unbroken for many years, including one in the 200 yard butterfly not bettered until 1998 and a 1:55.8 in the 200 individual medley that was 1977's fastest time in the Nation in NCAA II?
 
How about his setting a national record in 1976-77 in the ~00 individual medley of 4:08.07? (He later missed winning he national championship in that event at the NCAA championship meet by 2.4 tenths of a second.)
 
His All-American performances, chiefly in individual medleys and butterfly events, mirrored the PSAC championships (three in each year) that he won by each year setting conference meet records that he had previously achieved himself.
 
Abreu's abilities paced Coach Ralph Johnson's teams to a combined 22-6 record in '74-77, including a win at Penn State, as the Indians posted marks of 8-3, 7-2 and 7-1.

While still a student at IUP, Abreu competed for his native Paraguay (where he had won numerous national scholastic championships) in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. In 1980, he competed in the Olympics again, in Moscow.
 
The business administration major returned to Paraguay in 1983 after marrying the former Bethany Ann Boss, who he had met at IUP. They have a daughter, Rebekah, 14, and son, Joshua, 11.
 
After starting a small Bible study in their home in 1986, the Abreus nurtured this to a community of approximately 7000 members at nine different churches in areas around Paraguay.
 
Bethany for the past nine years has been director of the Asuncion Christian Academy, a mission school. Their church recently built a structure with a capacity for 20,000 and features a prominent radio/television ministry.
 
Regretfully, Abreu found by this past midsummer that commitments in Paraguay would keep him from returning to IUP today, as he had at first hoped to.