Courtesy: USC Sports Information
NCAA champion swimmer Louise Hansson and All-American diver Henry Fusaro were named as USC’s 2020 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal award winners Thursday (June 11), Trojan Swimming and Diving receiving both honors in the same season for the first time.
Each year, the league awards Conference Medals to a male and female senior student-athlete at each participating institution who exhibits the greatest combination of scholarship, athletics and leadership. Awards were given to both women’s and men’s student-athletes starting in 1987.
Fusaro graduated this spring with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Law, and Law, History and Culture with a minor in Business Law while carrying a 3.58. GPA. The 2020 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming and Diving Scholar Athlete of the Year, Fusaro finished his senior year as a two-time CSCAA Scholar-All-American, 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large honoree, Pac-12 All-Academic honoree and USC Marks and Stevens Scholars recipient.
Fusaro, the men’s diving team captain this season, won the 1-meter springboard at the 2020 NCAA Zone E Diving Championship and finished third on men’s 3-meter with 404.30 at the 2020 Pac-12 Men’s Diving Championships. The 2018 Pac-12 3-meter champion and 2017 Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year also served as a volunteer for the annual Swim With Mike fundraiser at USC.
Hansson, already a 2021 Tokyo Olympics qualifier, graduated as a three-time NCAA Champion, 19-time All-American, 10-time Pac-12 winner and nine-time school-record holder. She was the first Pac-12 woman to win the 100-yard butterfly four times at the conference championships and the first to win the event in back-to-back seasons in over two decades.
Hansson, a two-time USC women’s swimming co-captain, graduated this spring as a Marks Scholar honoree with a degree in Business Administration. Hansson is USC’s first woman to win a Pac-12 medal since swimmer Anika Apostalon in 2017. The last men’s swimmer or diver to win it was swimmer Cristian Quintero in 2015.
In 2009, the Pac-12 Conference Medal was re-named in honor of Tom Hansen, who retired in 2009 after serving for 26 years as Commissioner of the Pac-10.
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