Rachel Seymour

The 2004-2005 women’s swimming and diving season officially came to a close this weekend with the postseason awards banquet.

At the ceremony held Sunday afternoon, four swimmers were recognized with individual awards. Following the awards presentation, coach Clark Campbell named juniors Gina Gnatzig and Emily Rusch the 2005-2006 team captains.

It was a bittersweet day for current senior co-captain Miranda Isaac, who received the Karen Dionne award. The banquet was her last event as a Jayhawk swimmer.

“It was an appropriate goodbye,” Isaac said. “It was a great time to reflect on what swimming has been to us for the last four years.”

The Karen Dionne award is given annually to the most inspirational member of the team in memory of Karen Dionne, a Kansas swimmer whose career was halted after a car accident following her individual conference championship in the 100 breaststroke in 1985. Isaac was also a breaststroke swimmer during her tenure at Kansas.

“I was shocked and honored at the same time,” Isaac said. “I don’t think anyone can acceptan award like that. I am just humbled.”

Senior swimmer Aly Colver was recognized at the banquet for her excellence in academics with the Academic Award. Colver had a 4.0 grade point average and was a member of the Academic All-Big 12 team for three consecutive seasons.

The Tammy Thomas MVP award was earned by senior co-captain standout Amy Gruber. Thomas, a legendary swimmer at Kansas, earned 12 individual conference championships in addition to achieving All-American status in 1980, ’82 and ’83.

Gruber recently qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials at the NCAA Championships. Gruber’s four-year career at Kansas included being named first-team Academic All-Big 12.

Besides the senior class, which was greatly represented on the awards list, one shining star from the freshman class stood out. Terri Schramka received the Newcomer of the Year award.

“I knew I had a shot at it,” Schramka said. “All of the freshmen were up for it and everyone swam so well. It could have been any one of us.”

Schramka was a member of the school record-setting 800-meter freestyle relay team at the Big 12 Championships. She was also a major contributor in the 100, 200, 500 and 1000 freestyle events as well as the 100 and 200 backstroke events. Schramka’s talent landed her in KU’s top-five times in all of her events. Schramka took some of the credit for her swimming abilities, but she gave most of it to her teammates and the coaching staff.

“My season went really well,” Schramka said. “I appreciate the support of the coaching staff and my teammates because without them I couldn’t have done any of it.”

The banquet wrapped up the 2004-2005 season, but when Gnatzig and Rusch were named next year’s captains, the team began thinking about next year’s goals.

“Gina and Emily will be the liaisons between the team and coaching staff,” Campbell said, “but we’ll be looking to all six of the 2005-2006 seniors for leadership. The seniors on the team really set the tone for the year, and we have a great group leading us into next season.”