Swimming Honors Athletes At Year End Banquet

5/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Swimming & Diving

May 3, 2010

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Over the weekend, the Missouri men's and women's swimming and diving team held their season-ending banquet in the Lemone Lounge of the Memorial Stadium Press Box to take a look back at the successful 2009-10 season.

The event began with a brief social period for the athletes and their parents to meet before the dinner portion of the evening began. Before handing out awards, those in attendance were welcomed by Missouri Executive Associate Athletics Director Sarah Reesman, who reflected on the season and talked about the bright future of the swimming program.

The first awards of the night were handed out by assistant coach Kelli Stein, presenting the strength and conditioning awards on behalf of the athletic performance department. The awards are given to the male and female athletes who exhibited the focus and drive to be a stronger athlete during the year. The male award winner was given to Anders Melin, while Christina Gailey earned the award for the women's team.

Next, academic coordinator Meghan Anderson handed out the Academic All-Big 12 awards to the team, as all Missouri selections were first team award winners. The recipients were Matt Burns, Greg DeStephen, Jordan Hawley, John Hunt, Jan Konarzewski, Michael Lopresti, Melin and Yaniv Shnaider on the men's side, while Molly Bollen, Gailey, Colleen Gordon, Kim Jasmer, Jordan Morcom, Lisa Nathanson, Stephanie Rovig and Francie Szostak earned the distinction on the women's side. Jasmer was an automatic selection with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Acting as head diving coach for a day, assistant coach Pat Rowan read a prepared statement from diving coach Jamie Sweeney, who was in Canada along with DeStephen and future Tiger David Bonuchi, as they were participating in the Canada Cup. In the speech, Sweeney thanked the athletes for a diving year that saw the men's team score more total points than the rest of the field at the Big 12 Championships, and amazing performances by the women's team at the postseason level.

Acting head coach Chris Peters was the last to approach the podium, as he wrapped up the swimming season. He took time to thank the administration for their commitment to the swimming and diving program at Mizzou, and said that the team set more school records than in any previous season and the future can only get brighter. Peters also thanked former coach Brian Hoffer for giving him his start in swimming and coaching, then thanking Stein, Rowan, Sweeney and the team for making the transition to acting head coach so easily.

Peters then handed out the first of the major awards by giving out the certificates for the Big 12 Swimmers and Divers of the Week, that were awarded to Jasmer, Gordon, Konarzewski and DeStephen during the season.

The next major award that was handed out was tha Male and Female Swimmer of the Year. After setting and breaking two school records at two different meets, Konarzewski was named the Men's Swimmer of the Year, while Jasmer was named the Women's Swimmer of the Year for what coach Peters described as bringing a championship attitude to this year's team.

The Male and Female Diver of the Year award was the next trophy given out. For becoming the school record holder in all three diving events this year, DeStephen was named the Male Diver of the year, while consistently being a solid diver throughout the year and making the national championships after the best dive of her life at zones, Morcom was awarded the Female Diver of the Year.

Diving took the main stage again for the next two award presentations, first as all four divers that made the national meet received their All-American certificates. In the largest contingent to ever make NCAA's, DeStephen was named an All-American in all three events, while Dante Jones earned the honor in both 1M springboard and platform, Gailey on the platform and Morcom on the 3M springboard. DeStephen and Gailey were also named the Male and Female NCAA Top Performers.

The Male Newcomer of the Year is a part of a string of brothers that have all made their mark at Mizzou, as freshman Ryan Sellers was tabbed on the men's side. The Female Newcomer of the Year is the youngest Canadian transplant who made the first of her many NCAA appearances in 2010, as Dominique Bouchard earned the award on the women's side.

Peters then handed out the Pohlkamp Award, an award that's given to the male athlete that shows the most leadership throughout the season. This year, the honor was given to Hawley who will be a senior on next year's more seasoned men's squad.

In the second to last award of the night, Gailey earned the Bell Memorial Award which is given to the athlete that shows courage in the face of adversity. Last year, Gailey severely injured herself in a dive off of the platform that left her with a broken hand that could have been much worse. This year, she finished the season with a Big 12 silver medal, Zones gold and a strong NCAA performance all on the platform as a sophomore.

The final award of the night is a new yearly award to be given out, the Joe Goldfarb Leadership Award that will be given to a female athlete. The inaugural recipient was the senior Gordon. Gordon had a nine race winning streak at one point during the season, including four races at the Shamrock Invite, dominating wins over a higher ranked Arkansas team, and being the first to set a pool record at Iowa State.

The night wrapped up with a video montage of the 2009-10 season.