BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana swimming and diving captured five of the six Big Ten weekly awards available from the opening week of the season. The conference office announced its first cycle of awards on Wednesday (Oct. 1).
IU swept the diver of the week and freshman of the week honors, while also sweeping all three honors on the women’s side, after a split result with Florida at the weekend. Four Hoosiers earned their first-career weekly awards.
Junior Miranda Grana captured her second-career Big Ten weekly award, winning the 100-yard backstroke (52.09) and 100-yard butterfly (53.23) on top of a second-place result in the 200 IM (2:00.94). Grana also posted the best butterfly split in the 200 medley relay, going 23.62.
Sophomore Joshua Sollenberger swept the diving events to win Big Ten Men’s Diver of the Week. Sollenberger won the 1-meter springboard by 1.57 points with a score of 289.65, just ahead of Florida’s Jesus Gonzalez’s 288.08. He then dominated the 3-meter board by 33 points with a score of 343.95.
Freshman Kaylee Bishop, the Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Week, also won on 1-meter with a 255.53, outscoring Florida’s Maria Garcia’s 254.78. Bishop also finished fifth on 3-meter.
Freshman Noah Cakir swept the breaststroke events to win Big Ten Men’s Freshman of the Week. Cakir led an Indiana 1-2-3-4 finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (53.89) and a 1-2-3 performance in the 200-yard breaststroke (1:59.91).
Classmate Liberty Clark had quite the debut, winning the 50-yard freestyle (22.57) and 100-yard freestyle (48.29) while also dropping leading splits on the relays. Clark came from behind to out-touch teammate, reigning Big Ten Champion and program record holder Kristina Paegle in the 50 free before winning the 100 free by 1.91 seconds with a personal best time. The freshman also dropped the lone sub-49-second split in the 400 free relay and the only sub-22-second split in the 200 medley relay.
