Courtesy: CCSA
Men’s Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheCCSA.com) – Old Dominion University senior Peter Durisin (Bratislava, Slovakia) has earned the CCSA Men’s Swimmer of the Year award, the CCSA announced Friday. In addition, Florida Atlantic University senior Logan Downey (Plantation, Florida) repeated as the winner of the CCSA Men’s Diver of the Year, while the award for CCSA Men’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year went to Old Dominion redshirt-junior Noah Wilkins (New Orleans, Louisiana).
Durisin capped his senior season at Old Dominion by winning the 100 and 200 Breast at the CCSA Championship, and helping ODU to a second-place finish in the 200 Medley Relay. A year after finishing second in the 100 Breast, Durisin won the event with a time of 54.15. And after placing fifth in the 200 Breast in 2019-20, he won the event with a time of 1:59.13, shaving two seconds off his time from the previous year.
Downey swept his two events at the 2021 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships, beginning the meet with a gold medal at 3M with 320 points, then defended his title for the third straight year at 1M with a score of 306.60. He was awarded the CCSA Most Outstanding Male Diver of the Meet for the second consecutive year and earned a conference medal in all but one of his events during all four years at FAU.
Wilkins bounced back this season from injury, winning the 100 freestyle with a time of 44.72, and placing second in the 50 freestyle with a time of 20.33. He competed in six overall events and was ODU’s leading point scorer at the championships. A member of the ODU SAAC, Wilkins has a 3.99 GPA and is majoring in nuclear medicine technology. During the pandemic, he volunteered at his church giving food and supplies to those in need.
Also nominated for Swimmer of the Year: Josh Fountain (Florida Atlantic) and Tim Bennett (Gardner-Webb).
Also nominated for Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Clay Riemenschneider (Florida Atlantic) and Tim Bennett (Gardner-Webb).
(no other nominees submitted for Diver of the Year)
Women’s Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheCCSA.com) – Florida Gulf Coast University senior Petra Halmai (Dombovar, Hungary) has repeated as the CCSA Women’s Swimmer of the Year, the CCSA announced Friday. Also honored for the season are Liberty University freshman Maddie Freece (Lansdale, Pennsylvania), who earned the CCSA Women’s Diver of the Year award, and seniors Haley Todd (Lexington, Kentucky) of Bellarmine University and Cassie Phillips (Round Rock, Texas) of University of the Incarnate Word, who shared the honors as CCSA Women’s Co-Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Halmai has amassed a remarkable list of superlatives in her collegiate career, including an impressive array this season: 2021 NCAA Honorable Mention All-American (most notably finishing 11th nationally in the 200 Breast with a CCSA/FGCU record of 2:06.89 and 23rd in the 100 Breast with a CCSA/FGCU record of 59.76), 2021 CCSA Championship Swimmer of the Meet, and Hungarian Team Olympic qualifier.
Freece won both the 1M and 3M diving events at the CCSA 2021 Championships on her way to being named Most Outstanding Diver for that meet. She went on to compete at the NCAA Zone Championships, becoming the first Liberty diver to earn a top-ten finish at Zone Championships, placing 9th in the 1M dive.
Todd is graduating as a Bellarmine Scholar in the Honor’s Program, making Dean’s List for eight semesters and achieving a 4.0 GPA. She plans to pursue a PhD in pharmacology, and is already a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Phillips has achieved a 3.99 cumulative GPA while also setting the UIW record for the 100 Butterfly (53.50) in her winning performance at the CCSA Championship. She was also part of the UIW 200 Medley Relay team that notched a second-place finish at the CCSA Championship meet.
Also nominated for Swimmer of the Year: Mary Traylor (Gardner-Webb) and Annamaria Hornyak (Georgia Southern)
Also nominated for Diver of the Year: Reese Wakefield (Florida Gulf Coast).
Also nominated for Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Michaela Sizemore (Florida Gulf Coast), Mary Traylor (Gardner-Webb), Isabelle Bray (Georgia Southern), and Kiah Francis (Liberty).
