2020-21 Great Midwest Swimming & Diving All-Conference Team (PDF)


INDIANAPOLIS – By virtue of their placement at the recently-completed championships event, Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Swimming & Diving All-Conference honors, including individual awards for the 2020-21 year were announced on Thursday.
 
To earn all-conference honors, the highest Great Midwest finish in each event was filtered out from the Mountain East Conference, from the combined results. The same process was applicable for determining second team and third team all-conference honors as well.
 
Three different member institutions shared the spoils for five individual conference-only women’s awards as voted by the head coaches including Swimmer, Diver, Freshman and Coach of the Year. A tie was formed for Swimmer of the Year that resulted in co-honors for Hillsdale and Malone. Findlay also claimed the inaugural selection of the Great Midwest Elite 23 Award, rewarding the highest cumulative GPA with at least sophomore classification in attendance at the championship meet.
 
Eight different student-athletes from Findlay, seven more from Hillsdale and two from Malone, comprised the all-conference first team. Great Midwest Co-Swimmers of the Year Leah Tunney (Hillsdale) and Denise Quentin (Malone) both received a pair of first-place votes in the balloting among the league’s coaches. Tunney helped the Chargers win the conference team title with 111 points spanning the 3.5 day meet.
 
Tunney was conference athlete of the week early in the season, following up on her conference freshman of the year campaign in 2019-20. She was runner-up in Canton in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke while helping the Chargers to three second-place finishes in different relay races.
 
Quentin, a senior for the Pioneers, also was responsible for 111 team points through her efforts as she delivered an individual conference championship with the top time in the prelims and finals of the 100 butterfly. She also was third in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
 
The Great Midwest Elite 23 Award was also presented on site in Canton to Findlay’s Brette Klopp, a senior with a cumulative 3.90 GPA majoring in Early Childhood Education. Klopp delivered 82 points to her team’s total, including a 400 medley relay win. She also was top 8 in the finals of the 200 and 400 IM and made the finals of the 100 backstroke for a pair of top-10 finishes.
 
The Great Midwest Freshman of the Year was announced as Hillsdale’s Cecilia Guadalupi, who earned the same combined meet honor at the conference championships. She was the top finisher in the 200 IM, 400 IM and helped Hillsdale win the 200 freestyle relay, while tallying a total of 120 team points through her finishes.

Great Midwest Diver of the Year honors went to Findlay sophomore Leah Vander Roest as she won one of two competitions at the combined conference championship meet. 
 
Hillsdale’s Kurt Kirner was the choice once again for Great Midwest Coach of the Year as the Chargers accumulated 1,690.5 points, an almost identical point total to last year to successfully defend their team title.