Marschner, McDivitt Garner Pac-12 Yearly Awards

SAN FRANCISCO – Head diving coach Richard Marschner and diver Luke McDivitt earned Pac-12 yearly diving awards on the men's side as Marschner took home the Pac-12 Men's Diving Coach of the Year award and McDivitt was named the Men's Diver of the Year. The pair of Pac-12 awards mark the first coach and diver of the year awards in program history for Utah.

Marschner, who completed his 11th season at the helm of the diving program, led the Utes to their best showing in history as a team for both the women and men at the Pac-12 Championships. The Ute men posted their highest point total in program history (133) to finish in first place at the conference championships over Stanford, Arizona, USC and California. Only Stanford had scored more points at the meet in the Pac-12 era and the last time that many points were scored was in 2017. On the women's side, Utah also finished with its highest point total in history with a score of 225, which was a program-high by 80 points, and placed second. Overall, the men and women combined to finish first among the Pac-12 schools.

Marschner guided three Utes to podium finishes as McDivitt became Utah's first ever Pac-12 champion on platform, along with Tony Chen, who recorded runner-up finishes on the 1m and 3m, and Lizzy DeCecco, who placed third on the 3m. n all, Utah had 13 championship finalists at the Pac-12 Championships across both teams.

He also coached the group to see four student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships, which is the most in a single season for the program. DeCecco and Emma Ruchala became the first duo of Ute women divers to qualify in a single season for the program as well, while Chen and McDivitt made up the remaining qualifiers from exceptional performances at NCAA Zones.

McDivitt shined on platform this season despite not having a full set of towers to train on. The Lexington, S.C. native posted a school record score of 400.75 to earn himself the title of the Pac-12 platform champion, becoming Utah's first-ever conference diving champion. He continued his excellent run by finishing as the runner-up at the NCAA Zone E Championships on platform and earned his second-consecutive bid to the national championships.

With his impressive performance on platform, McDivitt also earned spots in the 1m and 3m at NCAAs as well. After the first two days of competition at the NCAA Championships, McDivitt settled in right in time for his best event and finished sixth in the prelims on platform to earn a spot as Utah's first championship finalist on platform in Utah diving history. McDivitt finished the competition in eighth place following the finals and earned first-team All-American honors on platform as the sole Ute in history to do so on the event.

The pair of the awards are just the second and third in program history after Connor Cain earned the 2016 Diving Newcomer of the Year award.