Zeng, Parrington Earn SEC Diving Honors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Tennessee redshirt junior Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng was named SEC Diver of the Year and Dave Parrington earned SEC Men's Diving Coach of the Year accolades once again, the conference office announced Thursday.

Zeng assembled a record-setting NCAA championship performance last month, winning Tennessee's first men's platform diving title, taking silver on 3-meter springboard and earning a fourth-place finish on 1-meter.

He broke UT's 3-meter diving record by more than 30 points with a score of 495.15 points at NCAAs. At the NCAA zone qualifying meet, he became the first UT diver to cross 500 points in any event when he dove 507.15 on platform.

During the regular season, Zeng was named SEC Diver of the Week six times. At the SEC Championships, he was second on 1-meter, third on platform and fourth on 3-meter.

Parrington has now been named SEC Diving Coach of the Year 14 times (10 men's coach of the year; four women's coach of the year). He is in his 28th year as Tennessee's head diving coach and has led his squad to eight NCAA individual titles and 41 SEC gold medals.

Tennessee also had 16 swimmers and divers earn All-SEC honors, including seven Lady Vols who were named first team: Katie Armitage, Madeline Banic, Micah Bohon, Erika Brown, Bailey Grinter, Stanzi Moseley and Tjasa Pintar.

Brown became the first Lady Vol in program history to win three individual titles in one SEC meet -- the 50-yard freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly -- and shared the Commissioners Trophy for high point scorer with Texas A&M's Sydney Pickrem. She later finished second at the NCAA championships in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.

Second-team All-SEC honorees include: Zeng, Ryan Coetzee, Alec Connolly, Kyle DeCoursey, Peter John Stevens, Braga Verhage, Tess Cipelucha, Rachel Rubadue and Meghan Small.

The Vols also earned four Freshman All-SEC honors: Will Hallam and Josh Walsh for the men and Bailey Grinter and Tjasa Pintar for the women.

SEC SWIMMING & DIVING POSTSEASON AWARDS

SEC Male Diver of the Year: Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng

SEC Male Diving Coach of the Year: Dave Parrington

SEC Women's Commissioner's Trophy: Erika Brown

All-SEC
Men
Ryan Coetzee (2nd team)
Alec Connolly (2nd team)
Kyle DeCoursey (2nd team)
Peter John Stevens (2nd team)
Braga Verhage (2nd team)
Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (2nd team)

Women
Katie Armitage (1st team)
Madeline Banic (1st team)
Micah Bohon (1st team)
Erika Brown (1st team)
Bailey Grinter (1st team)
Stanzi Moseley (1st team)
Tjasa Pintar (1st team)
Tess Cieplucha (2nd team)
Rachel Rubadue (2nd team)
Meghan Small (2nd team)

SEC All-Freshman Team
Men
Will Hallam
Josh Walsh

Women
Bailey Grinter
Tjasa Pintar

University of Tennessee Athletics

Players Mentioned

Katie Armitage

Madeline Banic

Micah Bohon

Erika Brown

Tess Cieplucha

Ryan Coetzee

Alec Connolly

Kyle DeCoursey

Bailey Grinter

Will Hallam

Stanzi Moseley

Tjasa Pintar

Rachel Rubadue

Meghan Small

Peter John Stevens

Braga Verhage

Josh Walsh

Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng

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