Arizona senior Emma Schoettmer and Arizona State sophomore Patrick Park have been named the Pac-12 Swimmers of the Month for November. They were joined in the honor by USC divers Maria Polyakova and Collin Pollard in earning the awards.
Schoettmer, an All-American breaststroker, won 3 of 4 individual events against UCLA and USCas part of a 1-1 team record for the Wildcats on the month. That includes a sweep of the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.73 and 1:01.30 in those meets, respectively; and also won the 200 breaststroke against UCLA in 2:13.48.
While she wasn’t able to beat USC freshman Riley Scott in the 200 breaststroke on her second attempt, Schoettmer dropped more than a second to go 2:12.75 and come up just a tenth short.
This is Schoettmer’s first career Swimmer of the Month award, and the 6th for the Arizona program.
Polyakova, a native of Penza, Russia, has won seven of her eight competitions since October and has placed first in every 3-meter springboard final so far this season. Polyakova swept the diving events against Arizona in Tucson, scoring marks of 296.03 on the 1-meter and 303.45 on the 3-meter. At the Trojan Diving Invitational, the sophomore swept the springboard events again, totaling a 591.35 on the 1-meter and posting a 3-meter score of 580.10. In the dual meet against ASU, Polyakova placed second in the 1-meter (283.5), only 1.05 points behind the first-place winner. She then recorded her highest score this season in the 3-meter in dual competition, scoring 304.70 to take first place.
This is the second-career Diver of the Month honor for Polyakova and 11th overall for UCLA. She previously earned the award for the month of December 2014.
On the men’s side, Park had a dominant month that included 5 individual event victories and 5 relay victories as part of a busy month that saw Arizona State drop duals to USC and Air Force, and place 5th out of 8 teams at the Art Adamson Invitational hosted by Texas A&M.
Among Park’s victories was a win in the 200 fly at Art Adamson in 1:44.72: a time that jumped him to 3rd on Arizona State’s all-time rankings and just a second away from the school record.
Pollard (San Jose, Calif.) recorded wins in all three one-meter diving events he competed in during the month of November, along with two wins in his three-meter events. The senior began the month at the Trojan Diving Invitational with a one-meter score of 659.55, a three-meter score of 750.25 and a 678.20 score in the platform. He took first place in the one-meter and three-meter while earning a runner-up finish in the platform. In USC’s meet against Arizona, Pollard won the one-meter and three-meter events again with scores of 354.23 and 365.48, respectively. Pollard then earned a first-place finish in the one-meter event against Arizona State (341.85) and a third-place finish in the three-meter event (356.70). He has already established NCAA Championship qualifying scores on all three boards. Pollard’s honor is the fourth all-time for USC and the first since Harrison Jones in February of 2011.
ALSO NOMINATED
- Women’s Swimmer: Noemie Thomas, CAL; Ella Eastin, STAN; Linnea Mack, UCLA; Presley Wetterstrom, WSU
- Women’s Diver: Sally Hackett, ARIZ; Mara Aiacoboae, ASU; Phoebe LaMay, CAL; Amanda Casillas, UTAH
- Men’s Swimmer: Mathias Oh, ARIZ; Ryan Murhpy, CAL; Sam Perry, STAN; Pawel Furtek, USC; Bence Kiraly, UTAH.
- Men’s Diver: Rafael Quintero, ARIZ; Finn Scribbick, CAL; Connor Kuremsky, STAN; Josiah Purss, UTAH.
Note: Diving summaries courtesy the Pac-12 Conference.
