Courtesy: Big 12 Sports
Texas swept the swimming and diving awards for the fourth time this year in the 11th week of awards. Carson Foster and Emma Sticklen were named Men’s and Women’s Swimmers of the Week while Nick Harris and Hailey Hernandez brought home the Men’s and Women’s Diving awards. Spencer Aurnou-Rhees and Dakota Luther then completed the sweep by collecting the Men’s and Women’s Newcomer awards.
Foster helped the fifth-ranked Longhorns pick up a pair of wins over No. 4 NC State as he won two races and had four top-three individual results. The junior added two more top-two finishes in the 200 (1.23,77; 21.34 back split) and 400 (3:07.01; 46.44 back split) medley relays as well. His weekend was highlighted by his top-place finish in the 200 fly when he swam a 1:40.83, giving him the third-fastest time in the nation this season and making him the fourth-fastest Longhorn in program history. Foster also won the 200 IM by 1.83 seconds with a time of 1:43.14 to help Texas sweep the event. He concluded his individual swims with second-place in the 200 back (1.42.05) and third in the 200 free (1:32.29). The Cincinnati, Ohio native has now won Swimmer of the week twice this season and six times in his career.
Sticklen earned her second award of this season and third career honor after winning two individual events and a relay. She set a program-record in the 100 fly with a time of 49.79, making her the first Longhorn to swim sub-50 seconds in the event and giving her the fourth-fastest time in the NCAA this season. In the 200 fly, the junior clocked the fastest time in the nation this season and the second-fastest mark in program history with a winning time of 1:51.37. To round out her individual races, she collected a second-place result in the 200 IM with a personal-best 1:54.70, which is the fifth-fastest in program history and fifth-fastest in the NCAA this season. Sticklen then helped Texas break a program record in the 200 medley relay with a second-place finish in 1:33.70 (22.29 fly split), good for the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season. She ended her weekend with a win in the 200 free relay with a 21.28 split.
Harris swept the springboard events as he won both the 1-meter and 3-meter against No. 4 NC State. He scored 424.43 points on the 3-meter to begin the weekend and was the only diver to clear 400 points. The freshman then scored 412.05 points in the 1-meter to conclude his events. He averaged a margin of victory of 41.4 points, winning the 3-meter by over 30 points and the 1-meter by over 50 points. The Chester Springs, Pennsylvania native has won Diver of the Week three times in his first year with the Longhorns.
Hernandez continued the success on the springboards as she won both the 1-meter and 3-meter as well. Only Texas divers surpassed the 300-point threshold as Hernandez led a pack of four Longhorns with a 337.13 point winning effort, 10 points ahead of the runner-up. In the 3-meter, she tallied 402.15 points to win by over 40 points and lead Texas to the top-four spots once again. This is her first career award.
Aurnou-Rhees received his first career award as he earned a pair of top-eight individual results. The freshman placed fifth in the 200 IM with a B-Standard time of 1:45.90 as well an eighth-place finish in the 100 free (44.47). He also set a season-best time of 1:46.74 in the 200 fly to conclude his individual results. Aurnou-Rhees also helped the Texas relays to two top-five finishes in the 400 free relay (2:55.07; 43.94 split) and the 200 free relay (:20.61; 20.23 split).
Luther ended her weekend with two top-three and three top-five individual performances. Her highlight was a second-place performance in the 200 fly when she swam a personal-best 1:51.58, good for the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season and No. 3 all-time in program history. Luther then finished third in the 100 fly with the sixth-fastest time in program history (51.90). The graduate student also added a fifth place result in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.22 before helping the Texas 200 medley relay (1:35.91; 23.26 fly split) and 400 medley relay (3:35.32; 51.65 fly split) to third place finishes.
A full list of the season’s weekly Big 12 Swimming and Diving award winners can be found here.