SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference introduced the 2019 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving awards recipients, as voted on by the league coaches. California’s Abbey Weitzeil changed into named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year while Golden Bears’ head coach Teri McKeever turned into voted Pac-12 Swimming Coach of the Year for the 8th time in her 27-year tenure with this system. Stanford’s Taylor Ruck was named the Pac-12 Swimming Freshman of the Year after helping the Cardinal collect its 1/3-instantly NCAA National and Pac-12 Championship crowns. For the 0.33-instantly year, UCLA’s Tom Stebbins was voted Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year as he coached senior Maria Polyakova to her 2d professional Pac-12 Diver of the Year honor. Finally, Stanford’s Carolina Sculti was tabbed Pac-12 Diving Freshman of the Year.
SWIMMER OF THE YEAR – Abbey Weitzeil, JR, California (Saugus, Calif.) – Weitzeil changed into named the 2019 Pac-12 Women’s Swimmer of the Year after triumphing in 3 individual events and contributing to 4 relay victories at the Conference championships, for which she earned Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet honors. She set a Cal and Pac-12 meet record within the hundred-yard freestyle, touching in at 46.35, and later gained the 200 free with a personal-best time of 1:41.97. At the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Weitzeil received a man or woman NCAA title, broke three NCAA records, and crowned the rostrum in four relay events to help California earn a runner-up finish for the 0.33 consecutive years. Weitzeil swam the anchor leg on Cal’s 200 loose relay crew that broke the NCAA, American, U.S. Open, meet, and pool statistics with a time of 1:24.Fifty-five. She helped Cal’s quartet top the 400 loose relays with an NCAA document time of three:06. Ninety-six and also set a new pool file inside the 400-yard medley relay at three:25.24. Continuing together with her record-breaking performances, Weitzeil went on to set a new NCAA, American, U.S. Open, meet, and pool record in the 50 free with a time of 21.02. Weitzeil also took fourth in the one hundred free (46. Ninety-seven) and 200 unfastened (1:42.29) activities on the national meet.
The junior is a public fitness primary and is the first Golden Bear to win the nod, considering that Olympian Missy Franklin received it in 2015, and marks this system’s twelfth all-time award. SWIMMING FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR – Taylor Ruck, FR, Stanford (Scottsdale, Ariz.) – Ruck is the fourth-instantly Cardinal to win the Pac-12 Swimming Freshman of the Year honor following Simone Manuel (2015), Ella Eastin (2016), Katie Ledecky (2017), and Brooke Forde (2018). Ruck recorded six podium finishes at the Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, including individual runner-up finishes in the 100 (50) and two hundred-yard backstrokes (1: forty-eight. Sixty-seven) and contributions to 4 relay groups that each finished 2d. At the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Ruck took 2nd in the 2 hundred loose (1: forty.37) and 200 lower back (1:47.Fifty-nine) and finished third in the one hundred again (50.34) to help Stanford win its 0.33-immediately NCAA Championship and national fine 11th all-time crown. Ruck’s 200 loose times tied Simone Manuel for the second-best mark at the faculty’s all-time listing and turned into one-hundredth in the back of Katie Ledecky‘s school record.
The freshman changed into a part of the NCAA Championship-triumphing 800 free relay crew with Katie Drabot, Ella Eastin, and Brooke Forde that clocked a pool file at 6: forty seven.22. She additionally swam at the two hundred loose (1:26.50) and 400 unfastened relays (three:09.Seventy three) that every took domestic a bronze medal and become part of Stanford’s four hundred medley relay team that positioned 6th (three:28.45). SWIMMING COACH OF THE YEAR – Teri McKeever, California – McKeever has been named the Pac-12 Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the primary time seeing that 2015 and collects her eighth professional award to tie Arizona’s Frank Busch for the most awards with the aid of a train in Pac-12 records (1999, 2002, 2009, 2011-2013, 2015, 2019). McKeever led California to its 0.33 consecutive runner-up finish at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, in which she was named CSCAA Coach of the Year. In addition, McKeever collects her 5th country-wide teacher of the year honor, tied for the second-most nationally, and leads all league coaches. Cal has placed the various top 3 on the NCAA Championships for eleven years to extend the longest modern streak inside the country and has led the Golden Bears to national titles in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015. With McKeever at the helm of the Cal girls’ swimming application, scholar-athletes have been named Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year nine times and National Swimmer of the Year eight times.
OF THE YEAR –
Maria Polyakova, SR, UCLA (Moscow, Russia) – Polyakova was named the Pac-12 Women’s Diver of the Year for the second time in her career after winning two Pac-12 crowns at the Conference championships. The senior gained the 1-meter (335.70) and 3-meter (350.70) springboards for her 1/3 and fourth profession titles at the championships to earn Pac-12 Diver of the Meet, as voted on by way of the league coaches. Polyakova has become the first-ever UCLA diver to win an individual NCAA Championship after taking home the 3-meter crown (396.00) for the program’s first character identity, considering Annette Salmeen won the two-hundred-yard butterfly in 1996. Her 3-meter score became 3 factors shy of her very own college record and made her the sixth diver in Pac-12 history to win the NCAA event. The Moscow, Russia native additionally posted a runner-up national finish within the 1-meter (346), totaling 37 points and garnering 2019 CSCAA Diver of the Year accolades. She is the fourth Pac-12 diver to get hold of the national honor and first considering that 2007 (Cassidy Krug, Stanford). In 2017, Polyakova gathered UCLA’s first Pac-12 Diver of the Year honor, considering that Kristen Walls claimed the inaugural award in 1994. Her choice marks the program’s 1/3 consecutive and fourth all-time nod (Eloise Belanger, 2018). The linguistics important is a two-time CSCAA Scholar All-American and Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention member.
DIVING FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR –
Carolina Sculti, FR, Stanford (Rye, N.Y.) – Sculti will become the 6th Cardinal all-time to win the Pac-12 Diving Freshman of the Year honor and 1/3 within the remaining eight years (Haley Fransworth, 2017; Stephanie Phipps, 2011). At the Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the freshman took 1/3 in the 1-meter springboard (313.10), 2nd in the 3-meter (346.45), and rounded out the meet with a 7th-place result on the platform (204.94). Freshmen accounted for five of the top-eight finishes on the Conference championships, with Sculti answerable for three of them while being the only rookie to attain in all three events. She finished her first year on The Farm with a couple of All-America honors on the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in the 1-meter and three-meter after putting twelfth (297.80) and 14th (316.60), respectively.
DIVING COACH OF THE YEAR –
Tom Stebbins, UCLA – Stebbins earned the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year award for the third consecutive year, becoming the second one train in Pac-12 history to win as many consecutive league honors (Hongping Li, USC: 2001-2003; 2009-2014). He became the primary Bruin head coach to win the award multiple times in the same season and the primary recipient since 1996, together with his nod in 2017. In addition, Stebbins coached Maria Polyakova to Diver of the Meet honors on the 2019 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships after crowning the rostrum in 2-of-3 diving events. Stebbins was also named the CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, marking the 1/3 honor in Pac-12 records (Hongping Li, USC; 2002, 2006). UCLA led all diving programs at the NCAA Championships with a school-record 75 factors behind seniors Eloise Belanger (38 points) and Polyakova (37 points), who have been the 2 highest-scoring divers.
