Nov. 5, 2005

DALLAS, Texas - Missouri senior diver Evan Watters, the school record holder on the 1 and 3-meter boards, earned an early-season accolade on Friday when he was named the Big 12 Men's Diver of the Month for October.

The award capped off a month in which the San Antonio, Texas, native helped the Tigers take first in the inaugural Show-Me-Showdown and contributed wins in both the 1-meter (319.20) and 3-meter (295.75) competitions to Mizzou's first-ever dual win over Texas A&M.

"Evan is a great diver - obviously one of the best in the Big 12 Conference," Mizzou head coach Brian Hoffer said. "This is a great honor, not only for him but for our program, as well."

This selection marks Watters' second conference Diver of the Month nod. His previous honor came in October of 2003, when he was a sophomore.

"Evan absolutely amazes me," Mizzou diving coach James Sweeney said. "Up to the point of the Texas A&M, we had been doing conditioning and drills, but we hadn't been training our dives. He basically had to go out there and remember what the good dives felt like from last season. The fact that he was able to put together an amazing performance shows what kind of an athlete and how much of a gamer he really is."

In 2004-05, Watters teamed with fellow senior Nicole Frazier to become the first pair of Mizzou divers to qualify for NCAA Nationals in over two decades. He turned in top-25 finishes on the 1 and 3-meter boards at the national meet, in addition to runner-up performance on the 1-meter board at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships. He has garnered Mizzou Men's Diver of the Year honors in each of the last two seasons.

Watters and the rest of the Mizzou swimmers and diver will be in the water again from Nov. 18-20, when they travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on a field loaded with nationally-ranked teams at the Purdue Invite. For all the latest on Mizzou swimming and diving, visit www.mutigers.com.