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Freestyle/Backstroke/Butterfly
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Backstroke/Freestyle/Butterfly
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Diving
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Zhu, Yablonski Garner Weekly Big Ten Honors
11/16/2022 3:00:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota fifth-year senior Joy Zhu and freshman Ava Yablonski have each been recognized by the Big Ten for their efforts in last week's dual meet win over Iowa.
Zhu was named the Big Ten Diver of the Week for the fourth time this season, while Yablonski was tabbed the Freshman of the Week for the first time in her career.
It's the first time since Oct. 24, 2018, that the Gopher women's program has had multiple weekly winners from the conference. In that instance, Mariam Khamis was named Diver of the Week and Abbey Kilgallon was Freshman of the Week.
Against the Hawkeyes, Zhu remained undefeated on the season as she swept the diving events. She logged a career-high score of 338.62 on the 1-meter, the fifth-best score in program history. Zhu also recorded a personal record on the 3-meter with her score of 375.00, 52 points ahead of second place.
It's the seventh time in her career that Zhu has been named the Big Ten Diver of the Week, previously earning the distinction three times as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season and three weeks in a row earlier this season on Nov. 2, Oct. 26 and Oct. 19.
She becomes the fourth Gopher to win the award at least six times in a career. Only Maggie Keefer (15) and Yu Zhou (14) have won more, while Kelci Bryant also has seven such honors.
Zhu is also the first Gopher diver to take home the award four times in one season since Zhou, a current Minnesota graduate assistant, did it eight times as a junior in the 2015-16 season.
Yablonski earned three race wins against Iowa, including an individual win in the 100 fly in a time of 55.28, her third victory in the event this year.
She was also a part of two relay wins. She swam leadoff for the winning 200 medley relay squad (1:41.71), and she swam second for the winning 400 free relay team (3:26.03). Her split in the latter was 51.28.
Yablonski also notched a second-place finish in the 100 back at 54.99. It was just .05 off the winning time and was the second fastest for the Gophers this year.
Prior to Yablonski's win, the last Gopher to win Freshman of the Week honors was Hannah Cornish, who did it twice last season.
The Gopher women and men will be back in action at the Minnesota Invitational, which starts Nov. 30 and runs through Dec. 4.
Zhu was named the Big Ten Diver of the Week for the fourth time this season, while Yablonski was tabbed the Freshman of the Week for the first time in her career.
It's the first time since Oct. 24, 2018, that the Gopher women's program has had multiple weekly winners from the conference. In that instance, Mariam Khamis was named Diver of the Week and Abbey Kilgallon was Freshman of the Week.
Against the Hawkeyes, Zhu remained undefeated on the season as she swept the diving events. She logged a career-high score of 338.62 on the 1-meter, the fifth-best score in program history. Zhu also recorded a personal record on the 3-meter with her score of 375.00, 52 points ahead of second place.
It's the seventh time in her career that Zhu has been named the Big Ten Diver of the Week, previously earning the distinction three times as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season and three weeks in a row earlier this season on Nov. 2, Oct. 26 and Oct. 19.
She becomes the fourth Gopher to win the award at least six times in a career. Only Maggie Keefer (15) and Yu Zhou (14) have won more, while Kelci Bryant also has seven such honors.
Zhu is also the first Gopher diver to take home the award four times in one season since Zhou, a current Minnesota graduate assistant, did it eight times as a junior in the 2015-16 season.
Yablonski earned three race wins against Iowa, including an individual win in the 100 fly in a time of 55.28, her third victory in the event this year.
She was also a part of two relay wins. She swam leadoff for the winning 200 medley relay squad (1:41.71), and she swam second for the winning 400 free relay team (3:26.03). Her split in the latter was 51.28.
Yablonski also notched a second-place finish in the 100 back at 54.99. It was just .05 off the winning time and was the second fastest for the Gophers this year.
Prior to Yablonski's win, the last Gopher to win Freshman of the Week honors was Hannah Cornish, who did it twice last season.
The Gopher women and men will be back in action at the Minnesota Invitational, which starts Nov. 30 and runs through Dec. 4.
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