Season Recap: Divers Lead the Way as Purdue Makes the Most of 2021 CampaignSeason Recap: Divers Lead the Way as Purdue Makes the Most of 2021 Campaign

Season Recap: Divers Lead the Way as Purdue Makes the Most of 2021 Campaign

Two diving medals at the Big Ten Championships and three All-Americans as championship finalists on the tower at the NCAA Championships highlighted Purdue swimming & diving's 2020-21 season.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two diving medals at the Big Ten Championships and three All-Americans as championship finalists on the tower at the NCAA Championships highlighted Purdue swimming & diving's 2020-21 season.

Emily Bretscher, Maggie Merriman and Maycey Vieta teamed up to account for 56 points in the diving events at NCAAs, helping the Boilermakers finish 20th in the team scoring. That was the top diving-only total at the national championships meet this year. As a team, Purdue finished among the top 25 at NCAAs for the 12th time since 2005.

Season Recaps: 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020

Led by Vieta's bronze medal-winning performance, the Boilermakers accounted for three of the eight competitors in the platform championship final at NCAAs. Merriman took fourth and Bretscher seventh in the event, all earning All-America honors as the Purdue women had three student-athletes in a championship final at NCAAs for the first time in program history.

Bretscher was also an All-American on 3-meter via her sixth-place showing. She joined Carrie McCambridge (2005), Amanda Miller (2007) and Ashley Karnes (2009) as Purdue's female divers to be two-time championship finalists and full-fledged All-Americans in the same year. Bretscher demonstrated her versatility by joining McCambridge and Miller as those to do accomplish the feat in a springboard event and the tower.

The Boilermakers combined for 14 career-best times/scores that ranked among the top 15 all-time in the respective event in the program record book. Seven of the 10 individual marks in the swimming events were posted by freshmen, with the other three coming from sophomore Kate Beavon.

CAREER BESTS TO JOIN RECORD BOOK
Masy Folcik – 7th in 200 Breast (2:14.87)
Emily Bretscher – 8th in 3-Meter Diving (369.90)
Hayley Pike – 8th in 1000 Free (9:55.64)
Kate Beavon – 9th in 1000 Free (9:56.05)
Masy Folcik – 9th in 100 Breast (1:01.70)
Maycey Vieta – 9th in Platform Diving (316.80)
400 Free Relay Team – 9th (3:19.37)
    …Abbasse, Bowen, Kishman, Myers
Kate Beavon – 10th in 1650 Free (16:32.50)
Maggie Merriman – 11th in Platform Diving (312.30)
Hayley Pike – 12th in 1650 Free (16:36.12)
Belle Hinshaw – 14th in 200 Free (1:47.78)
Evie Sierra – 14th in 200 Fly (2:00.52)
Kate Beavon – 15th in 200 Free (4:48.61)
Abby Harter – 15th in 100 Back (55.28)

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Purdue's winter training program was impacted and the meet schedule did not begin until mid-January. Per Big Ten regulations, the Boilermakers only competed in three meets prior to the Big Ten Championships. The USA Diving Winter Nationals, traditionally held in mid-December, were also canceled.

Swimming events and diving events were split up at Big Tens this year. The Purdue divers hosted the co-ed half of the meet this season while their teammates on the women's team were competing in the swimming events that same week in Minneapolis.

Merriman won silver on platform and Bretscher bronze on 3-meter at Big Tens, both medaling for the second year in a row. Vieta (4th) and Bretscher (5th) joined Merriman among the top-five finishers on the tower. Bretscher and Vieta scored in all three diving events, with Bretscher finishing among the top nine in all three events to emerge as Purdue's top scorer at Big Tens for the second year in a row. She's also now a three-time medalist and eight-time championship finalist at Big Tens.

Seniors swimmers Riley Kishman and Natalie Myers scored in an individual event at Big Tens for the third consecutive season and also earned Academic All-Big Ten honors for the third year in a row. Emily Converse earned her fourth Academic All-Big Ten honor as a fifth-year senior this season.

The Boilermakers had 25 Academic All-Big Ten honorees this year, matching the fourth most in program history. Their 3.66 team GPA during the fall semester once again ranked among the top five in the Big Ten while marking the seventh consecutive semester they had a mark of at least 3.40. Sixteen members of the program had perfect 4.0s for the fall semester.

Purdue will bid adieu to a group of dedicated seniors but is slated to return the core of the team for the 2021-22 season. Bretscher has also indicted she plans to return for a fifth year after eligibility extensions were granted by the NCAA in the wake of the pandemic.

ALL-AMERICANS
Emily Bretscher – 3-Meter & Platform Diving
Maggie Merriman – Platform Diving
Maycey Vieta – Platform Diving

NCAA BRONZE MEDALIST
Maycey Vieta – Platform Diving

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS
Emily Bretscher – 1-Meter, 3-Meter & Platform Diving
Maggie Merriman – Platform Diving
Maycey Vieta – Platform Diving

BIG TEN MEDALISTS
Maggie Merriman – Silver in Platform Diving, Second Team All-Big Ten
Emily Bretscher – Bronze in 3-Meter Diving

BIG TEN MEDAL OF HONOR
• Emily Bretscher

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
• Emily Bretscher

TEAM GPAs
Fall Semester: 3.66
Spring Semester: 3.59

SOUTH AMERICAN DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS MEDALIST
Maycey Vieta – Silver in 3-Meter Synchro for Puerto Rico

FINA DIVING WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
Maycey Vieta – 10-Meter Diving for Puerto Rico

U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS QUALIFIERS
Emily Bretscher – 3-Meter Diving
• Masy Folcik – 100 Breast
• Sylvia Kobylak – 200 Breast
• Maggie Merriman – 10-Meter Diving
• Hayley Pike – 1500 Free

EVENT WINNERS AT INDIANA SENIOR STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS (LCM)
Kate Beavon – 1500 Free
• Abby Harter – 100 Back
Abby Jahns – 200 Fly
• 200 Medley Relay – Abby Harter, Masy Folcik, Kat Mueller & Rachel Young
400 Medley Relay – Abby Harter, Masy Folcik, Evie Sierra & Rachel Young

BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS (3.7+ GPA)
Caylee Casbon
Emily Converse
Katie Hughes
McKenna Jule
Evan King
Riley Kishman
Sylvia Kobylak
Kelsey Macaddino
Maggie Merriman
Kat Mueller
Natalie Myers
Angela Pan
Maycey Vieta
Leanna Wall
Tessa Wrightson
Rachel Young

CSCAA SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICA (3.5+ GPA & NCAAs QUALIFIER)
Emily Bretscher
Maggie Merriman
Maycey Vieta

CSCAA SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICA HONORABLE MENTION (3.5+ GPA & B CUT)
Riley Kishman
Sylvia Kobylak

ACADEMIC ALL-BIG TEN (3.0+ GPA)
Claire Abbasse
Kate Beavon
Kendra Bowen
Emily Bretscher
Caylee Casbon
Emily Converse
Sydnee Emerson
Elissa Haake
Katie Hughes
Maddi Johnson
McKenna Jule
Evan King
Riley Kishman
Sylvia Kobylak
Kelsey Macaddino
Maggie Merriman
Kat Mueller
Natalie Myers
Angela Pan
Lindsay Turner
Erin Verbrugge
Maycey Vieta
Leanna Wall
Tessa Wrightson
Rachel Young

TEAM AWARDS (COMING SOON)
MVP --
Most Improved –
P2S&D Program Values –
Whatever It Takes –
Star Recruiters –
Cathy Wright-Eger Continuing Women of Educational Excellence Award –
Red Mackey Award (Excellence By a Senior) –
Big Ten Sportsmanship – Riley Kishman