Swimming and Diving Newsletter :: JUNE 2011 Clemson Swimming & Diving Concludes Season with Awards Banquet The Swimming & Diving Team held its Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, April 9th. The Tigers were surrounded by past team members, friends and family on the beautiful spring evening. Award winners for the women s team include: Most Valuable Player Meg Anderson Most Improved Athlete Kelsey Krauss Tiger Pride Tori Cervone Most Inspirational Performance Sarah Smith Most Dedicated Kerry McLaughlin Most Dedicated in the Weight Room Sarah Bechard Rookie of the Year Hannah Collins Coaches Award Elizabeth Savage Award winners for the men s team include: Most Valuable Player Chris Dart Most Improved Athlete Andrew Abeysinghe Tiger Pride Eric Bruck Most Inspirational Performance 200 medley relay @ ACC s (Chris Dart, Mark Schindler, Seth Broster, and Eric Bruck) Most Dedicated David Gordon Most Dedicated in the Weight Room Seth Broster Rookie of the Year Lucas Gerotto Coaches Award Chris Reinke
The Women s Swimming & Diving Team To Serves at Annual Community Service Project The Clemson Women s Swim Team participated in the Be a T.I.G.E.R! Event on April 9th before the kick off of the Spring Football Game. The event runs kids through the Clemson studentathlete experience by showing them sport and also teach them the CU mottos of teamwork, integrity, gratitude, education and respect. Student-athletes also handed out shirts, played games and signed autographs for local kids in the community. Assistant Coaches Tricia Harm and Zac Adams served as dunking booth guests for the kids to get wet! We are proud of all of the community service the men and women from the swimming and diving programs provide! Senior Spotlight- Sarah Smith and Josef Knecht After school is out in May Sarah plans to enjoy her summer before studying Architecture abroad for the fall semester in Italy. Sarah plans to finish her architecture degree in the spring and then attend graduate school for her Master s in Architecture degree. Josef Knecht will graduate this fall with a Bachelor s degree in Biochemistry. In the fall he will head to Pharmacy School at the University of South Carolina. Best of Luck to all of our graduating Seniors-Meggie Mizelle, Elizabeth Savage, Sarah Smith, David Gordon, Josef Knecht and Kyle Shoemaker. Clemson Men Finish Top 25 in the Nation The Clemson foursome of Seth Broster, Eric Bruck, Chris Dart and Chris Reinke finished the season with a tenth place finish in the 200 Freestyle Relay at the Men s NCAA Championships. The men broke the school record during the finals with a time of 1:17.72. Eric Bruck led off the relay with a personal best and school record for the Tigers with a 19.42. Bruck also qualified for the consolation final in the individual 50 freestyle and tied for fourteenth with a time of 19.67 (p 19.47) Clemson Men s Stats for the Season 22nd in the Nation for Academics 25th in the Nation for dual meet poll 25th place at the NCAA Championships 14th place finish in the 50 free for Eric Bruck 10th place finish in the 200 free relay at NCAA 3 ACC Champions (200 medley relay, 50 free (Bruck), 200 backstroke (Dart)) 2 school records broken again at the NCAA Championships (200 free relay, 50 free)
Clemson Assistant Derek Perkins Named CollegeSwimming.com Rising Assistant of the Year Clemson Swimming and Diving Tigers Finish Spring Semester with strong Academic Performances The Clemson women s swimming and diving team finished the spring semester with an overall team GPA of 3.60. The women were led by five 4.0 students for the semester. The Clemson men finished the spring with a 2.99 GPA for the spring semester. Summer Session I began on May 18th and we hope to continue to Tiger tradition of excellence in the classroom. Clemson Assistant Swimming Coach Derek Perkins has received the prestigious Rising Assistant Coach of the Year Award for the 2011-2012 season. Derek beat out notable assistants from Top 10 programs all over the country. Perkins was nominated by Head Coach Chris Ip and by many Clemson student-athletes. Perkins came to Clemson from Emory in 2009 after his first year at Clemson he waved the storm when the program was phased out and through the loss of the team s training facility on campus. Perkins is a new father and husband who has persevered during this difficult year to see results in the pool he never dreamed of achieving. Some of the team s accolades include: Men s first-ever top-25 finish at the NCAA Championships Sophomore Eric Bruck places 14th 50fr, 200 free relay places 10th at NCAA Championships Men ranked 22th academically with 3.01 fall GPA Three ACC Champions 200 bk-50fr-200 medley relay Women ranked 4th academically 3.55 fall GPA 19 total combined school records achieved Congratulations Assistant Coach Derek Perkins! Clemson NCAA Qualifiers featured in May 9th Issue of Orange Experience Clemson foursome of Chris Dart, Eric Bruck, Seth Broster and Chris Reinke are featured in the Orange Experience magazine published exclusively for donors of the Clemson IPTAY scholarship fund in an article titled Band of Brothers. The article documents their setbacks with the program being discontinued and the crumbling of the Fike facility to their epic climb to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March. If you wish to purchase an Orange Experience magazine contact the IPTAY office for more information or check out clemsontigers.com.
TIGER NATION Family Matters Proud parents Josh Williams and Sarah Williams welcomed their first born, Anna Williams on April 18th. Josh swam for the Tigers from 1999-2003. Their family now resides on James Island, SC. A TIME TO CELEBRATE! Adam Tepe surprised Mary Paulsen on June 10th by proposing to her in Mount Pleasant, SC on the Old Pitt Street Bridge. They enjoyed a long weekend celebrating with friends and enjoying Charleston. Adam ( 03) and Mary ( 07) both swam four years for the tigers and were team captains. Kelly Urso and Ryan Cloyd were wed on May 21st in Greenville, South Carolina. Kelly swam for Clemson from 2002-2006 and works for her alma mater. Ryan is a Clemson graduate as well, which lead a strong Clemson Cadence Count later in the evening! Kate Walker Liscinsky and husband Mark welcomed their first born, Samuel Behr Liscinsky on May 23rd. Kate swam for the Tigers from 2000-2004 and was a team captain. Her husband Mark swam for American University and has been the team s Head Assistant Coach for the last 5 seasons. Kate, Mark and Sam and their labradoodle Scout live in Silver Springs, Maryland. Two Clemson swimmers of the class of 2007, Sarah Cefalu and Bryce Herrington were wed on April 16th in Sarah s hometown of Slidell, Louisiana. Many of their former teammates traveled to help them celebrate in New Orleans and at her parents home in Slidell!
CONGRATS TO IRONMAN TJ FRY TIGER IN ACTION Alum Brett MacLennan, class of 2007 recently appeared as a swimmer turned murder victim on ABC s Castle. The episode entitled The Dead Pool aired on April 11th. Click here if you d like to catch Brett in action: http://abc. go.com/watch/castle/sh559040/ VD55121473/the-dead-pool. On May 21st at the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas, TJ Fry qualified for his third trip to the World Championship Ironman in Kona, Hawaii! TJ swam for Clemson from 1992-1996 and was a team captain. He lives in Woodlands, Texas with his wife and 2 children and is the owner and president of Swim Shops of the Southwest. Congratulations TJ! TJ s splits: Swim 52:24 T-1 2:10 Bike 5:15:29 T-2 3:00 Run 4:01:27 Time 10:14:29 We d like to share your successes, stories, and adventures. Send them to: clemsonswimminganddivingalumni@gmail.com