Ella Eastin Named Pac-12 Women’s Swimmer and Freshman of the Year

The Pac-12 conference has announced its athletes of the year for the 2015-16 season.

Ella Eastin was honored as the Pac-12 Women’s Swimmer and Freshman of the Year. Eastin lived up to all of the hype that she brought as a blue-chip recruit, holding off intra-conference freshman sensation Kathleen Baker in the 200 IM and easily dominating the 400 IM and 200 fly at the Pac-12 Champs.

The conference to NCAA taper can be difficult to execute, especially for a freshman, but Eastin showed significant improvement at nationals and racked up two individual titles, an American record in the 200 IM, and contributed on multiple relays for the Cardinal.

Diver of the Year also went to a Stanford athlete, sophomore Gracia Leydon-Mahoney. She was Stanford’s first national champion in the platform diving event since 2001. At the Pac-12 Champs, she racked up two titles, one in 1-meter springboard and the other on the 10m tower.

UCLA’s Éloïse Bélanger earned Diving Freshman of the Year after the Montreal native set a new program record in the 1-meter diving event in her NCAA runner-up performance. She also placed in the top five in each of the three diving events at Pac-12s this year.