NORMAL, Ill. - All-American diver Wenting Zhang and four-time Missouri Valley Conference champion Marissa Yontz took home top honors at the Illinois State swimming & diving team's annual awards banquet, hosted April 5 in the Hancock Stadium Club.
To no surprise, Zhang was selected as the ISU Diver of the Year after her history-making season. The Shenzhen, China, native became the first diver in school history to advance to the NCAA Championships, where she earned a pair of All-American honors with a 15th-place finish in the 1-meter competition and a sixth-place finish overall in the 3-meter event at the NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
Throughout the season, Zhang was named the MVC Diver of the week seven times and broke the Illinois State school record at the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Championships with her personal-best scores on the 1-meter (343.00) and 3-meter boards (373.20) to help the Redbirds finish in second place overall.
Yontz was named the ISU Most Valuable Swimmer, after a record-breaking season in the pool. Yontz finished out the season in record-breaking fashion at the 2014 Missouri Valley Championships, where she broke the school records for the 50-yard freestyle (:23.17), 100-yard freestyle (:50.44) and 200-yard freestyle (1:50.04). The Canton, Ill., native earned All-MVC honors for her stellar performances and won four conference titles, including the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle and as part of the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relay teams.
During the year, Yontz was named Missouri Valley Conference Swimmer of the Week, after her dominant performance at Truman State where she was victorious in every event she competed in. She was also stellar at the Zippy Invitational hosted by Akron, where she posted then school-record breaking performances in the 50-freestyle (:23.52), the 100-freestyle (:50.66) and the 200-freestyle (1:50.06) en route to helping the Redbirds win the prestigious event
In addition to the Most Valuable Athlete awards, a number of other Redbirds were recognized at the awards banquet. Freshman Kristin Verkler was named ISU Newcomer of the Year, after her stellar performance in the pool this season. Throughout the year, she continually set new season and personal-best times and finished the season by being named to the MVC All-Conference team. Verkler finished second in the 100-yard butterfly individually and was part of the first-place finishing and school record-breaking 400-yard freestyle relay (3:24.56) team at the MVC Championships.
Juniors Cecilia Holmes and Alexis Nash were selected for the Spirited Awards and Yvette Kruk, Katelyn Kresal and Courtney Taylor were honored with the Most Improved Awards after their performances this season.
The 2014-15 Dede Woytowych Endowed Scholarship, presented annually to a swimmer who is seen as a good teammate, hard worker and who possesses a love for the sport of swimming, was given to junior Kristin Horney. The Rebecca Wade Award, which is given to a swimmer who possesses the all-around characteristics of a student-athlete, was presented to Katherine Nelson.
The Scholastic Award was also presented to five student-athletes, including Erica Halley (3.90), Maggie Kopp (3.98), Valerie Jones (3.75), Kelly Sanks (4.00) and Kresal (3.70). To earn this award, a student-athlete must have three semesters of a 3.75 GPA or higher. Three senior student-athletes were also recognized at the banquet on the Redbird roster including Halley, Kopp and April Livingston. The ceremony concluded with the announcement of the 2014-15 team captains: Keely Hunt, Alexis Nash and Yontz.
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