Another week, another award for Illinois-Chicago men’s diver Harrison Nolan.
The 2022 Riverside-Brookfield graduate was chosen the Missouri Valley Conference’s Diver of the Week for Jan. 22.
The redshirt junior swept both diving events for the Flames, contributing to the men’s team defeating the University of Chicago 209-63 on Jan. 18. On the one-meter board, Nolan finished with a score of 388.13 points, a 1.65-point improvement over his previous season high. On the three-meter board, Nolan saw an even bigger leap, scoring 406.43 points (+13.65).
Nolan — who is double-majoring in marketing and finance — has 10 weekly honors since joining UIC swimming and diving a season ago after transferring from Kentucky.
“The MVC Diver of the Week award means to me that my hard work is recognized,” Nolan said. “It’s exciting and it’s cool to see the conference recognized it as a good performance.
“It’s been a pretty good year so far. I’ve been having good performances at dual meets. I come in every day and work with (UIC diving) coach (Susan) Romberg on doing the right things and good things come after that.”
In the Flames’ dual meet at Missouri State on Jan. 24-25, Nolan scored 370.73 points to finish first in the one-meter dive. He followed that by posting his career-best in winning the three-meter dive with 417.90 points.
“I trust my training,” Nolan said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. I show up knowing that I could (set a personal record) and focus on the biggest connections.
“I have a good competition mindset and I focus on competing and enjoying what I’m doing.”
Another highlight this season for Nolan was competing against some of the best Division I collegiate divers at the USA Diving 2024 Championships held in Bloomington, Indiana, in mid-December.
Participating only in the one-meter event, Nolan placed 13th with a score of 304.10 points.
“That was a good experience to have and to compete against a lot of great divers in the middle of the season,” Nolan said. “This will prepare me for the meets we have in the upcoming months.”
● Lake Forest men’s basketball player Alex Knight has earned three honors recently. The 6-foot-1 senior guard, who prepped at Marist, was named the Midwest Conference’s Performer of the Week for Jan. 6 and 12 while also taking home Forester Athlete of the Week honors for Jan. 14.
For the week ending Jan. 6, Knight led Lake Forest to a 127-116 win over Grinnell as he set career highs with 41 points and 17 rebounds on Jan. 4. He added eight assists and three steals. Knight also finished with 29 points in a 101-95 loss to Bethany Lutheran on Dec. 30.
In a 75-66 victory at Knox on Jan. 8, Knight scored 20 points. Three days later in a 95-72 decision over visiting Cornell, Knight paced all scorers with 33 points. For the two games, he added eight assists, seven rebounds and four steals.