UNC senior diver Aranza Vazquez Montaño was named the ACC Women’s Diver of the Year on Monday, and UNC diving coach Yaidel Gamboa was named the ACC Women’s Diving Coach of the Year as well. For both, it’s the second year in a row they have won the honor.

Vazquez Montaño – only the second Tar Heel to win the ACC Women’s Diver of the Year award – won the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions at both the ACC Championships and the NCAA Championships in 2024. She has four national titles to her name as a Tar Heel, the only four titles in UNC program history. Vazquez Montaño is the first diver to win back-to-back titles in the one-meter competition since 2014. She was also named the 2024 College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Diver of the Year and is a finalist for the Honda Sport Award for Swimming and Diving.

Gamboa, who just completed his fifth season in Chapel Hill, was also named the Diving Coach of the Year by the CSCAA for the second straight year. In addition to Vazquez Montaño, Gamboa also coached Anton Down-Jenkins to two ACC Male Diver of the Year awards during his time as a Tar Heel. Down-Jenkins, like Vazquez Montaño, competed in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jerome M. Ibrahim


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