Air Force senior Genevieve Miller has been named the 2016-17 Mountain West Women’s Swimmer of the Year, while Nevada junior Sharae Zheng has been selected as the Women’s Diver of the Year. Boise State head coach Jeremy Kipp was named the Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year after leading the Broncos to their third Conference title since joining the league in 2011-12. For the fifth year in a row, Nevada diving coach Jian Li You has earned the Women’s Diving Coach of the Year accolades.
The annual awards recognize the outstanding swimmer and diver in the Conference. Student-athletes are nominated and selected by the head coaches of each member institution.
Miller capped her record-setting career at the Academy with two honorable mention All-America performances at the 2017 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Indianapolis on March 15-18. On March 16, she finished 16th with a time of 4:41.32 in the consolation final of the 500-yard freestyle. Earlier in the day, she swam the event twice, once in the prelims (4:39.97), then in a swim-off for the final spot in the evening’s finals session (4:39.82). Miller closed out her collegiate career with a 13th place swim in the 1,650-yard freestyle on March 18. She posted a time of 16:01.80. During the Mountain West Championship meet in February, Miller became the first MW swimmer to swim a sub-16 minute race (15:58.06) in the 1,650, shortening the Conference overall and meet records that she had set at the 2016 MW meet. She also set a new standard in the 500-free at the Conference meet with a time of 4:38.98. With her wins at the Mountain West championship, Miller became the first four-time champion in two events in league history. She was also named the 2017 MW Swimmer of the Meet and earned the 2017 MW Senior Recognition Award.
Zheng earned All-America honors in two events at the 2017 NCAA Championships in Indianapolis. She placed sixth in the 1-Meter springboard event on March 16 (315.00) and seventh off of the 3-Meter springboard (341.75). Zheng also was named the 2017 Mountain West Diver of the Meet in February at the MW Championships in College Station, Texas. She hit the trifecta of winning all three diving events – 1-Meter, 3-Meter and Platform – a feat that has only been accomplished three time in MW history. Zheng set a 3-Meter Championship and overall record on February 16 with a 421.45, passing her 2016 MW meet mark of 396.35 and the overall score of 415.58 set by former Wolf Pack diver Krysta Palmer in 2015. She also started off the meet with a MW Championship record on the 1-Meter board of 359.35, edging out Wyoming rookie Karla Contreras in the finals to hold on to the record.
Kipp’s Boise State squad led from beginning to end, finishing with 1,390 points, as the Broncos earned their third Mountain West team title in six years. The Broncos won the 2017 title on the strength of its relay teams with a sweep of all five events. The 800-yard freestyle relay team set an MW overall record with a time of 7:03.96 in the first event of the meet and narrowly missed a new 200-yard medley relay record two events later with a time of 1:37.66. Boise State won its third relay of the meet on February 16 with an NCAA-qualifying mark and MW Championship standard in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:28.43. Also on Thursday night of the MW meet, Bronco seniors Katelyn Martin and Brittany Aoyama and sophomore Abbey Sorensen finished 1-2-3 in the 50-yard freestyle to pick up more points in the new 24-place scoring system for Boise State. A fourth relay win came on February 17 with an MW all-time record time of 3:34.40 in the 400-yard medley relay. Aoyama also picked up another Bronco individual title with her third consecutive crown in the 100-yard butterfly. Junior Emma Chard earned her second consecutive championship in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Ally Kleinsorgen won the 100-yard backstroke. The fifth relay title came in the final event of the meet with a time of 3:15.85 in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Aoyama also earned her second championship of the meet with a win in the 100-yard freestyle. Boise State wrapped up the season at the NCAA Championships with an honorable mention All-America performance by the 200-free relay squad of Aoyama, Sorensen, Martin and Kleinsorgen.
You earned her fifth consecutive MW coaching honor after leading her divers to three MW titles and eight All-Conference performances at the 2017 Mountain West Championships in College Station, Texas. Zheng led the squad with titles in all three events – 1-Meter and 3-Meter springboard and platform. Sophomore Zoe Lei also earned All-MW honors in all three disciplines, while classmate Toma Shmitova finished in the top eight in both springboard events. Zheng went on to earn All-America honors in the 1-Meter and 3-Meter at the NCAA Finals in Indianapolis, while Lei in platform.
News courtesy of Mountain West.