The Georgia Bulldogs not only won their second-straight NCAA Championship on Saturday night in Minneapolis, Minnesota; they also cleaned up with the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America awards, taking three of the four honors handed out on deck and voted on by their peers.
In the athlete categories, sophomore Brittany MacLean and senior Laura Ryan took the Swimmer of the Meet and Diver of the Meet awards, respectively.
MacLean’s meet began with a bang on Thursday, where she broke the NCAA Record with a 4:32.53 and beat Cal’s Missy Franklin (who was also under the old NCAA Record). That race saw just an incredible finish, where she ran down one of the world’s best female swimmers with a 52.98 last 100 yards that are of historic proportion.
After a 4th-place finish in the 200 free and a 2nd-place finish in the 800 free relay on Friday, MacLean set the pool on fire again by breaking the 1000 free NCAA Record en route to a 1650 free NCAA Record, clearing the old mark by 10 seconds. Coming into the meet’s final day, there was still a lot of conversation about who might win this award, but after MacLean’s mile swim, there was no doubt left. The most successful swimmer on the winning team, with three new NCAA Records, would win the award.
Other strong candidates for the honor include Stanford’s Maya DiRado, who had two individual wins (200/400 IM), two relay wins (400 medley relay/400 free relay), and an individual second-place finish (200 fly); as well as Cal’s Missy Franklin, who had two incredible 200 freestyle swims: first in the individual, and then to run down Georgia on the anchor leg of the 800 free relay.
Diver of the year was about as clean-cut, as the Georgia senior Ryan finished out her college career with the best performance of her life.
When she transferred from Indiana to Georgia, it was a head-scratcher in some ways. Indiana is one of the country’s legendary diving programs, and Georgia, while certainly a solid program, had never before won any NCAA women’s diving titles.
In two years, though, Ryan has changed that reputation in 2014, with wins on the 1-meter and the 3-meter, which were her two weakest events at NCAA’s last year, and a 3rd-place finish on the platform.
USC’s Haley Ishimatsu won the platform diver, and so is the logical ‘runner up’ for this award.
Ryan was joined in the awards by her coach Dan Laak. Between the two of them, Georgia has set themselves up for a bright future in support of the country’s best women’s swimming program right now, regardless of what happens with the coaching situation.
Speaking of that coaching situation, even with Georgia winning their second-straight title, it was Stanford’s head coach Greg Meehan who won CSCAA Coach of the Year. The Cardinal were the runners-up in the meet and won four of the five relay events in the process. Everyone knew his team would be good, but between getting Felicia Lee back on track in the last two years, and pushing Maya DiRado to the next level, this was a well-deserved honor.
It was also an honor that side-stepped a bit of an awkward situation in Georgia, where head coach Jack Bauerle has been suspended from competition since January, and Sr. Associate Head Coach Harvey Humphries has been leading the show on deck. Humphries by all accounts (including the accounts that matter the most – the scoreboard) has done a magnificent job, but it’s almost a ‘split vote’ situation. Meehan’s award, however, shouldn’t diminish the incredible job that Humphries did in leading his team through a delicate situation to the title.
See a video of the CSCAA awards ceremony above.
Congratulations to Brittany MacLean, a Geogia Bulldog, Canadian Olympian and superb person.
I’m not much of a Stanford fan but congratulations to Greg and the Stanford women….look out but I think Stanford will be in the mix the next several years for the NCAA title on the women’s side. Greg is a class act.
Yes, it is not difficult to predict that Stanford will be strong contender for NCAA title in the next two years as they will get Simone Manuel (who will win 50 and 100 free in addition to lead Stanford to win 200 FR/MR and 400FR) and Janet Hu who will win 100/200 back if Missy does not swim.