Trinity's Beauchamp; Sheldon selected as SCAC Female Swimmer and Diver of the Year

Trinity's Beauchamp; Sheldon selected as SCAC Female Swimmer and Diver of the Year

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Trinity University teammates Kara Beauchamp and Katie Sheldon were named the league's female Swimmer and Diver-of-the-Year, respectively, based on exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Beauchamp, a sophomore from Sammanish, Wash., who also earned SCAC Swimmer-of-the-Year honors as a freshman in 2013, was the SCAC Swimmer-of-the-Meet at February's conference championship meet where she won titles in the 200 IM (2:06.27), the 400 IM (4:27.40), and the 200 breaststroke (2:20.71) and established new Trinity and SCAC records in each event.

The next month, at the 2014 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships, Beauchamp earned Honorable Mention All-America recognition in the 400 IM on the strength of a 14th-place finish, and finished just one place out of Honorable Mention AA consideration in the 200 breaststroke.

The 2014 conference meet marked the second consecutive year that Beauchamp has been a triple winner at the SCAC Championships as she placed first in the 200 IM, the 400 IM, and the 200 breaststroke in both 2013 and 2014. She set Trinity school records in the three events at the conference championships as a first-year swimmer before breaking all three marks at this year's meet.

Beauchamp is the third female in league history to earn SCAC Swimmer-of-the-Year honors in her first two years in the league, joining Jane H. Chapman of Sewanee (1999 and 2000) and Elizabeth Land of Sewanee (2002 and 2003), and she is just the second Trinity female student-athlete to be recognized as SCAC Swimmer-of-the-Year (Lindsay Weigley earned the distinction in 2006).

A senior from West Chester, Pa., Sheldon won both the one and three meter boards at the NCAA zone qualifying meet to earn her spots at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Once in Indianapolis, despite two extremely bad knees, Sheldon performed outstandingly to hold third place until the tenth round when her knees gave out and she hit the board. She finished in eighth place and earned All-America honors for the third time in the 1-meter event. Sheldon's balky knees forced her to scratch from the 3-meter event.

During her four-year career, Sheldon earned All-SCAC honors in six of the eight diving events she entered, highlighted by a first-place finish on the 1-meter board in 2012. She was the league's runner-up on the 3-meter board in 2012 and finished second on both boards at the 2014 conference meet.

Continuing the program's dominance on the boards, Sheldon's selection as the league's Diver-of-the-Year marks the ninth consecutive year that a Trinity female student-athlete has earned the honor.

In exclusive voting of the league's head coaches that took place at the 2014 SCAC Swimming and Diving Championships, the Colorado College coaching staff, led by head coach Anne Goodman James, was named SCAC Women's Swimming and Diving Staff-of-the-Year.

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