Posted: Oct 10, 2017

PCSC Athletes of the Week: Oct. 9

The Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference announced its Athletes of the Week for the week of Oct. 2-8 on Tuesday. The second week of the season saw Fresno Pacific duo Laura Fornshell and Aleksei Averchenko earn Division II honors, while Pepperdine's Amy Griffin collected the Division I award for the week.

Division II Women

Laura Fornshell, Fresno Pacific: Fornshell won the 200 freestyle (1:53.14) and the 500 free (5:00.12) at the PCSC Pentathlon. Both her 200 and 500 are NCAA "B" cuts and her 500 is currently the top time in NCAA Division II. She also contributed to wins in the 300 fly relay (spit 58.0), 1500 relay (5:04) and 400 free relay (53.35) during the PCSC Relay Meet, helping the Sunbirds finish second as a team in the relay meet and first in the pentathlon.

Division II Men

Aleksei Averchenko, Fresno Pacific: Averchenko won the 100 fly (50.76) and 100 back (51.90) during the PCSC Pentathlon meet. He also contributed to wins in the 300 fly relay and 400 medley relay (51.61 Backstroke leadoff) during the PCSC Relay Meet. His performance helped guide the Sunbirds to second place as a team in both meets.

Division I Women

Amy Griffin, Pepperdine: In her first collegiate meet, Griffin turned in three outstanding swims. This was Pepperdine's first competition of the year, a dual meet Thursday, October 5th, against a very tough SDSU squad. Griffin won the 100 free, out-touching the Aztecs by one-tenth of a second, swimming a season-best time of 53.72. She also helped her team place second in the 200 medley relay (1:51.26) with a split of 24.26. Meanwhile, in the 50 free, Griffin placed second after being out-touched by nine-hundredths of a second, swimming a 25.27.

The PCSC includes institutions from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All three divisions of the NCAA are represented. Each week, the PCSC coaches nominate and vote on the Athletes of the Week in seven categories: NCAA Division I women, Division II men and women, Division III men and women and NAIA men and women. You can find the Athlete of the Week archive here.