Courtesy: The ACC
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano and Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh were named the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s and Women’s Swimmers of the Year and highlight the ACC’s yearly award winners for the 2023-24 swimming and diving season.
The honors were determined by a vote of the league’s head coaches.
North Carolina’s Aranza Vazquez Montaño earned ACC Women’s Diver of the Year honors for the second consecutive season, while Pitt’s Cameron Cash was voted ACC Men’s Diver of the Year.
Virginia’s Cavan Gormsen was selected as the ACC Women’s Freshman of the Year, while Daniel Diehl of NC State was named the ACC Men’s Freshman of the Year.
Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo was voted ACC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the fifth consecutive season and NC State head coach Braden Holloway was selected ACC Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the third year in a row.
North Carolina’s Yaidel Gamboa was named the ACC Women’s Diving Coach of the Year for the second straight year, while Pitt’s Katie Kasprzak was selected ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year.
Walsh is a 21-time All-American and an 18-time NCAA Champion and was named the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America’s (CSCAA) Division I Women’s Swimmer of the Year following the 2023-24 season where she won every race she competed in, including at the 2024 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships and the 2024 NCAA Championships. The junior currently holds eight NCAA records after setting four at this season’s NCAA Championships, on top of setting three American Records.
At the 2024 ACC Championships, Walsh set a meet, conference, American, NCAA and US Open record in five different events in the 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 free relay and 800 free relay. She was also named the 2024 ACC Championships Most Valuable Swimmer.
At the 2024 NCAA Championships, Walsh swam the fastest time in women’s swimming history in the 50 free (20.37), the 100 free (44.83) and the 50 back (22.10), helping Virginia to its fourth consecutive National Championship title.
Guiliano swept the sprint freestyle events and claimed four titles at the 2024 ACC Championships in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free and 400 free relay. The six-time All-American qualified for the sprint free events at the 2024 NCAA Championships where he placed fourth in the 50 free (18.49), fifth in the 100 free (40.66) and third in the 200 free (1:30.38), earning First Team All-America status in all three events. The junior’s third place finish in the 200 free marked the highest individual men’s finish in Notre Dame history.
Vazquez repeated as the 1-meter and 3-meter diving champion both at the 2024 ACC Championships and the 2024 NCAA Championships. For the second straight year, the La Paz, Mexico, native was named both the 2024 CSCAA Diver of the Year and the ACC Women’s Most Valuable Diver. The senior is the first diver to go back-to-back in the women’s 3M since Miami’s Alicia Blagg in 2018-21 and the first back-to-back 1M champion since Virginia Tech’s Kalyea Arnett in 2013-14 at the conference championships.
Cash qualified for the NCAA Championships on all three diving events – 1M, 3M and platform – for the third time this season following his pair of 2024 ACC Individual Championships, after he swept the 1M and 3M springboard events. Cash finished in fourth place overall at NCAAs with a total score of 409.20 to earn All-American honors. The junior is the first Panther to earn All-American status in men’s diving since Dominic Giordano who won the national title on 3-meter in 2016. At the league championships, he became the first platform champion from Pitt since 2015 and broke the program record on platform with his score of 448.95 before breaking the Princeton facility record on platform during the NCAA Zone A Championships with a 408.00.
Gormsen claimed a pair of titles at the 2024 ACC Championships in the 500 free and the 1650 free. The freshman then went on to place fifth overall at the 2024 NCAA Championships in the 500 free, earning All-American honors. Her time of 4:35.37 stands as the fifth-best in Virginia’s record books. Gormsen also finished just off the podium in the 200 free at the ACC Championships, placing fourth overall.
Diehl finished his freshman campaign with three top-16 finishes at the 2024 NCAA Championships placing ninth as the anchor leg of NC State’s 800 free relay, 15th overall in the 200 back and 16th overall in the 200 IM. At the 2024 ACC Championships, the Cumberland, Maryland, native recorded three podium finishes as the leadoff of the Wolfpack’s second place 800 free relay, second in the 200 back, third in the 200 free and fourth in the 200 IM.
DeSorbo – the CSCAA Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the fourth straight year – led Virginia to its fourth consecutive National Championship and fifth overall. The Cavaliers are just one of three programs to win four in a row. At the 2024 NCAA Championships, Virginia won 11 events, including seven individual titles and four relay championships, marking the third consecutive year UVA has won a total of 11 titles at the championship. A total of five Cavaliers brought home gold medals led by Walsh’s seven first-place finishes.
Holloway won ACC Men’s Coach of the Year honors for the ninth time in the last 11 seasons. He guided the NC State men to their third consecutive and ninth ACC championship in the last 10 seasons. Holloway led the Wolfpack to a fifth-place finish for the second year in a row at the 2024 NCAA Championships, which featured 10 All-America honors and 12 podium finishes. The Wolfpack reclaimed the American Record in the 200 medley relay with Aidan Hayes swimming the fastest 50 back in history (20.07) in the leadoff leg to give Sam Hoover, Luke Miller and Quintin McCarty the room to finish in 1:20.98 – the second-fastest time in NC State history.
Gamboa repeats as the Women’s Diving Coach of the Year for both the league and the CSCAA, following Vazquez’s back-to-back National Championships as the only NCAA Diving Champions in North Carolina program history. This marks Gamboa’s second set of Coach of the Year honors in as many years after coaching Vazquez to four national titles.
Kasprzak is the first Men’s Diving Coach of the Year from Pitt since Julian Krug in 2017 following Cash’s two individual championships at the 2024 ACC Championships. This season, the Harpenden, England, native coached four divers to qualify for the NCAAs where Cash’s fourth-place finish on the 3M at the NCAA Championships is the highest any diver has achieved under the direction of Kazprzak.
2023-24 ACC Swimming & Diving Annual Awards
Women’s Swimmer of the Year: Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
Men’s Swimmer of the Year: Chris Guiliano, Notre Dame
Women’s Diver of the Year: Aranza Vazquez Montaño, North Carolina
Men’s Diver of the Year: Cameron Cash, Pitt
Women’s Freshman of the Year: Cavan Gormsen, Virginia
Men’s Freshman of the Year: Daniel Diehl, NC State
Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Todd DeSorbo, Virginia
Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Braden Holloway, NC State
Women’s Diving Coach of the Year: Yaidel Gamboa, North Carolina
Men’s Diving Coach of the Year: Katie Kasprzak, Pitt