LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego swept the Swimmer of the Year and Swim Coach of the Year awards as the Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC) unveiled its year-end honors for the 2015-16 season late Monday. The awards were voted on by league coaches.
Michael Cohn and Colleen Daley were tabbed Male and Female Swimmer of the Year, respectively, while Corrie Falcon is the Women’s Swim Coach of the Year, and Daniel Perdew the Men’s Swim Coach of the Year.
UCSD cruised to an eighth straight PCSC title on both the men’s and women’s side in February in Monterey Park. The Triton women then returned home from the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, Ind., with the third-place team trophy for the first time since 2013, while the men wound up 17th with just four swimmers present.
Cohn, a junior and local product out of Solana Beach, is a repeat honoree as the Male Swimmer of the Year. He has earned the distinction in both of his seasons as a Triton following his transfer from Grossmont College. Cohn was the PCSC Male Swimmer of the Meet after producing three individual first-place finishes for the maximum 96 points. He went on to two All-America performances with one All-America honorable mention and three more school-record swims at his second NCAA Championships. Cohn improved on his fourth-place finish in his specialty, the 200-yard backstroke, as the runner-up this time around in a school-record 1:44.28.
Daley, a second-year team co-captain, broke school records in both the 50 (22.98) and 100 (50.29) freestyle events at her final PCSC Championships, winning both sprints. She was also part of four first-place relays, anchoring three of them, before then adding seven more All-America honors to her career haul at her fourth NCAA Championships. That meet was highlighted by a fourth-place effort in the 50 (23.03) on the opening night, and sixth-place showing in the 100 (50.73), marking the first two individual All-America distinctions for the Sacramento native. Daley also procured a total of 12 All-America nods in relays over an illustrious college career.
Falcon is the PCSC Women’s Coach of the Year for the third time in her five seasons at the UCSD helm. Perdew is a first-time PCSC Coach of the Year in just his second year in charge of the Triton men. He was the interim head coach in the 2014-15 season. Sixteen women, in addition to the four men, qualified for the NCAA meet. Sixteen of them combined for a total of 37 All-America designations, to go alongside 10 All-America honorable mentions. A remarkable 21 separate school-record swims were achieved by Tritons under Falcon and Perdew’s watch in 2015-16.
Swimming news courtesy of UC San Diego Swimming & Diving.