STANFORD, Calif. - Freshman Carolina Sculti was named the Pac-12 Women's Diving Newcomer of the Year and Taylor Ruck was selected as the Pac-12 Women's Swimming Newcomer of the Year, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday.
Ruck is the fifth straight Cardinal to win Pac-12 Swimming Newcomer of the Year and the eighth in school history. The conference's four previous swimming newcomer honorees were Simone Manuel (2015), Ella Eastin (2016), Katie Ledecky (2017) and Brooke Forde (2018).
Sculti is the program's sixth Pac-12 Diving Newcomer of the Year and first since Haley Farnsworth in 2017.
Ruck earned the maximum of seven All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. She set a school record en route to the silver medal in the 200 backstroke, was also the runner-up in the 200 free and took home bronze in the 100 back. In addition to earning medals in all three individual events, Ruck was a member of Stanford's national champion 800 free relay and garnered All-America status as a member of the 200 and 400 free relays, and 400 medley relay.
"Taylor had an incredible freshman year," said Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming Greg Meehan. "She just continued to get better as the year went on. She was phenomenal at NCAA's in her individual events, but her relay swims are what really stood out."
Sculti also enjoyed a successful first NCAA meet. The Rye, New York, native earned two All-America honors with a 12th-place finish on the 1-meter and 14th-place showing on the 3-meter. Sculti, who qualified for the NCAA's in all three diving events, was also second at the Pac-12 Championships on the 3-meter and third on the 1-meter.
"Carolina came through in many big moments this year because the diving skills she came to Stanford with were ready to build on," said head diving coach Patrick Jeffrey. "She really worked hard on bringing up her consistency and she quickly acquired a platform list through dedication and applying her existing skills in a new way."
Behind Ruck and Sculti, Stanford won its third straight NCAA title with 456.5 points. The Cardinal, which also finished the regular season unbeaten for the fourth straight year and won its third straight Pac-12 championship, boasted 18 All-Americans at the NCAA Championships and became the first school to three-peat since 2002-04.
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