Michigan State University
W - Big Ten Championships
Best Named Big Ten Diving Coach Of The Year
2/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
Feb. 19, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Michigan State's Eric Best was named Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year at the conference award presentations at the Big Ten Championships, hosted by the Ohio State University. Best's divers completed one-two-three sweeps in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions against four different opponents in the 2005-06 season and five Spartan divers qualified for the NCAA Regional meet.
"It's just a great honor to receive this award," Best commented. "The Big Ten has some of the best and most decorated coaches in the nation and in the world and to be voted by them is just a real honor. It's not what I did, but what the girls did. It's a great credit to them, they were the ones who really put in the hard work."
A career-high for Best, five of his Spartan divers have qualified for the NCAA Regional meet, March 11-13, also hosted by OSU. Allison Sayers, Amy Schmidt, Danielle Williams, Alycia Mokedanz and Katie Edwards are among those to compete. Best also oversaw Williams to two top-ten finishes at the Big Ten meet, taking sixth in the 1-meter board and ninth in the 3-meter competition.
"It's quite amazing to have this many quality divers," Best added. "Amy (Schmidt), Allison (Sayers) and Katie (Edwards) are my first recruiting class and have really set the tone for this program. Danielle (Williams) and Alycia (Mokedanz) both have extremely bright futures ahead of them. We aren't done yet this year either, we still have the regional meet and our goal is to reach the NCAA Championship."
Concluding the fourth and final day at the Big Ten Championships, the Spartans' swimming and diving team finished 11th in the meet with a score of 102.5, improving 18.5 points from a year ago. In the lanes, Rachael Hagerman recorded an 11th place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.81. Hagerman also teamed up with Katrina Kniff, Marsena Vranesic and Julianne Kahn for an 11th place finish in the 400 free relay, finishing in 3:27.58.
"The Big Ten is a tough field, but I am happy with our effort," head coach Matt Gianiodis commented. "We broke a school record and our divers had a great outing. We lost some points on the first day in one of our relays, which would have helped us, but sometimes those things happen. We improved from last year and that was good for our program, we just need to keep building on that."
Women - Team Standings - Final 1. Penn State 552 2. Minnesota 536.5 3. Michigan 509 4. Indiana 495 5. Purdue 428 6 Wisconsin 358 7. Ohio State 258 8. Northwestern 244.5 9. Illinois 207 10. Iowa 163.5 11. Michigan State 102.5
Swimmer of the Year: Kaitlyn Brady (MICH)
Swimmer of the Championships: Kaitlyn Brady (MICH)
Co-Big Ten Divers of the Year: Christina Loukas (IND), Carrie McCambridge (PUR)
Big Ten Diver of the Championships: Carrie McCambridge (PUR)
Freshman of the Year: Yuen Kobayashi (MINN)
Swimming Coaches of the Year: Terry Nieszner and Kelly Kremer (MINN)
Diving Coach of the Year: Eric Best (MSU)
Players Mentioned
