Minnesota’s Joy Zhu Earns Third Straight Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Week Award

MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota fifth-year senior Joy Zhu has been named the Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Week for the third week in a row, the conference announced Wednesday.

Zhu swept both diving events as Minnesota topped St. Thomas and South Dakota State in a tri-dual meet last week.

The two-time reigning Big Ten Diver of the Week, Zhu dominated on the 1-meter as her score of 329.35 was a career best and was 30 points higher than the next closest competitor. She later remained undefeated on the season as she captured first on the 3-meter with a season-best score of 354.90 that was 77 points clear of the field.

It’s the sixth time in her career that Zhu has been named the Big Ten Diver of the Week, previously earning the distinction three times as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season and each of the last two weeks.

She becomes the fourth Gopher to win the award at least six times in a career. Only Maggie Keefer (15), Yu Zhou (14) and Kelci Bryant (7) have won the award more times in Gophers history.

Zhu is also the first Big Ten diver to take home the award in three consecutive weeks since Zhou, a current Minnesota diving graduate assistant, did it as a junior in the first three weeks of the 2015-16 season.

The Gophers men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs return to action this week with a road dual at Wisconsin. The competition starts Friday at 4 p.m. with streaming available on B1G+.