By: Ryan Hartwig (@RyanHartwig)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - After winning three events apiece on Saturday against Wright State, Green Bay juniors Robert Miner (Madison, Wis.) and Kendra Rottier (Green Bay, Wis.) both picked up Horizon League
Swimmer of the Week honors on Tuesday for the period of Oct. 22-28. The awards
marked the first for both swimmers, and also marked the first time in Phoenix
history that both a men's and a women's swimmer were honored in the same week.
Miner's wins were crucial
in helping the Green Bay men pick up their first victory of the season on
Saturday with a 158-140 result against the Raiders. Miner swam on the winning
200-yard medley relay in the meet's opening race, and then went on to claim the
100 (52.22) and 200 (1:56.40) butterfly events.
"The effort that Miner put forth in helping our guys
with the medley relay against Wright State was awesome," Phoenix head coach Jim Merner said. "He had a great
butterfly leg. Then his 200 fly, to go 1:56 this early in the season was very
impressive. I think he is going to have a great season as the year goes on.
He's been working very hard, and winning those races was really important in
helping us beat Wright State in a classic, back-and-forth dual meet."
Miner is Green Bay's first
weekly award winner this season, and the first Phoenix male to win the award
since teammate Ben Loeffelholz
(Dubuque, Iowa) was honored last December.
Rottier won all three of
her individual events on Saturday in the women's team's 177-110 domination of
Wright State at the Peter F. Dorschel Natatorium. The junior edged out WSU
standout Justyna Hampel (10:26.09) in the 1000 freestyle with a season-best
time of 10:24.65 before winning the 200 butterfly in 2:11.07 and the 500 free
in 5:09.87.
"It's really nice that
Kendra was able to achieve the swimmer of the week award this week," Merner said.
"As we all know, she had such a great year last year and was never awarded, so
for her to come through on Saturday and win three different races was very good
for her. She is really showing how strong she is in the distance freestyles,
and she's becoming more confident all the time. Her work ethic is outstanding,
so I'm very happy for her. She definitely deserves this award."
Rottier is the first Green
Bay women's swimmer to be honored by the Horizon League this season, and the
award marks the first by a Phoenix female since Shannon Demrow nabbed swimmer of the week honors on
Dec. 7, 2009.
The Green Bay swimming and
diving squads hit the road for a pair of contests in the state of South Dakota
this week. The Phoenix teams first travel to Brookings, S.D., on Friday to take
on South Dakota State at 5 p.m., and then head to Vermillion, S.D., to face
South Dakota on Saturday at noon.
###
For the latest and most up-to-date information
on Green Bay Athletics and Green Bay Swimming & Diving, please visit
GreenBayPhoenix.com.
Follow us on Twitter:
@GBPhoenix @GBPhoenixSwim and
@RyanHartwig
Like
Green Bay
Phoenix Athletics and
Green Bay Phoenix Swimming &
Diving on
Facebook.
