Dec. 5, 2012

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's and women's swimming & diving teams took three of the league's four weekly awards after a dominating showing at the Iowa Hawkeye Invitational this past weekend, the league office announced this morning. Sophomore K.J. Heger and freshman Rachel Margis swept the Horizon League Diver of the Week honors, while junior Emily McClellan was named women's swimmer of the week.

Heger and McClellan both earned the league honor earlier this season and it is the fifth time in each of their Panther careers. For Margis, the award is a career first.

McClellan punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships after recording an NCAA A-cut time in the 100 breaststroke over the weekend with a time of 59.44 to win the event by nearly two seconds. She also won the 200 breaststroke with an NCAA B-cut time of 2:10.64, again touching the wall first almost two seconds in front of second place. Both times were meet records.

The Delavan native also broke the school record in the 200 IM with another NCAA B-cut time at 1:59.30, good enough for second place. McClellan also helped the 400 medley relay (3:42.20) to a second-place showing, the 200 medley relay (1:43.30) to a seventh-place finish, the 200 free relay (1:33.38) to take sixth and the 800 free relay to an eighth-place showing. All also came very close to breaking school records.

In diving, Heger led the way on the men's side by finishing fourth on the one-meter board with an NCAA Zone Score of 300.10. On the three-meter, he came in 11th at 241.70 in just his second week of action after returning from injury.

Margis led the way on the women's side by taking 12th on the three-meter with a score of 258.50. She also was the top finish for the Panthers on the one-meter with after posting a score of 222.95.

Both teams are done with competition for 2012 and return to the pool again in mid January. In the meantime, the Panthers will take their annual training trip to Florida from Jan. 3-12.