Thursday was an award-winning day for Duke junior diver Nick McCrory and Blue Devil diving coach Drew Johansen.
McCrory received ACC Men’s Diver of the Year honors, and his coach was honored with the conference’s Men’s Diving Coach of the Year award. McCrory and Johansen received their awards by a vote of the conference’s head coaches.
After winning a bronze medal in synchronized diving with fellow American David Buodia at the 2012 London Olympics, McCrory returned to Durham to improve on two seasons of near perfection in competitive diving, both in the ACC and the NCAA.
McCrory takes home the award for the conference’s best diver for the third year in a row after a season which saw the Chapel Hill, N.C. native also win his third straight NCAA title on the 10-meter platform. McCrory also became the first diver to ever win all three disciplines, the one-meter, three-meter and platform, at the ACC tournament. His incredible performance this season has earned McCrory All-American honors in all three disciplines for the third year in a row.
Johansen coached McCrory and senior Jordan Long to the qualifying stage of the NCAA tournament and led four male and two female divers to score points at the ACC Championships.
Along with tutoring McCrory for the past three years to become arguably the best diver in the NCAA, Johansen was also instrumental in his star pupil’s success in London. Johansen served as the head coach of the United States’ diving team, which took home four medals.
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