Nilsson Garip, Marschner Honored with Pac-12 Awards

SAN FRANCISCO – Emilia Nilsson Garip was named Pac-12 Women's Diving Freshman of the Year and Richard Marschner earned the title of Pac-12 Women's Diving Coach of the Year when the conference announced its women's swimming and diving postseason awards on Thursday.
 
This marks the second time in three years a Utah diver has been chosen for the freshman of the year honor, as Holly Waxman took home the honor in 2022, while Marschner is the first Utah diving coach to be chosen as women's coach of the year.
 
Nilsson Garip spent her first season as a Ute piling up a seemingly endless list of accomplishments, starting in November, when she broke the school record in the 1m and 3m at the Texas A&M Invitational. At the Pac-12 Championships, the Malmoe, Sweden native became the first student-athlete in program history to collect a pair of conference titles, finishing in first place in the 1m and 3m and ending the competition as the Pac-12 Women's Diver of the Meet.
 
At the NCAA Zone E Championships Nilsson Garip was back on the 1m and 3m boards and earned NCAA Championships spots both events, including taking second in the 3m. She then finished off her freshman year at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, achieving All-American status in the 1m.
 
Nilsson Garip isn't the only one of Marschner's pupils to have a successful 2023-24 campaign and Utah's diving coach has helped his student-athletes put together a long list of accolades over the past year. That includes multiple in-season Pac-12 awards for Holly Waxman and Elias Petersen and a team performance at the Pac-12 Championships that saw multiple female divers reach the A final in all three events. Petersen also took home a silver medal on the men's side in the 3m.
 
Marscher's Utes then put together a remarkable showing at NCAA Zones, with 11 total entries resulting in 10 spots at the NCAA Championships, including 3-for-3 performances from Waxman and Kathryn Grant. At nationals, Utah picked up four total All-American selections, three of which were earned by Holly Waxman, making her Utah's first diver and the first member of the women's team to realize such an accomplishment.
 
Waxman's feats made her one of only two women to finish in the top 16 at nationals in the 1m, 3m and platform and she helped the Utes collected 22 total points, the competition's seventh-highest total from just diving events and 25th overall.
 
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