LOCK HAVEN, PA – After winning its 38th PSAC Championship, the West Chester University men's swimming and diving squad swept the PSAC Postseason awards for the second straight year as
Paul Demesy (Saint Ulrich, France) won his third Athlete of the Year award,
Marti Rosell Diez (L'Albiol, Spain) walked away with Rookie of the Year honors, and head coach
Steve Mazurek was named the loop's Coach of the Year.
Demesy, a senior at West Chester, earned his third straight Swimmer of the Year Award and fourth major award during his storied college career. He was also named the 2023 Rookie of the Year before his run of Swimmer of the Year citations began at the end of the 2024 season. Diez becomes the 12th Golden Ram swimmer to earn PSAC Freshman of the Year honors since the conference first bestowed the awards in 2005. This is the fourth consecutive year that a Golden Rams' swimmer has received this honor, with Demesy,
Danny Dunigan and
Christian Henry all being honored in each of the last three years.
Demesy was a two-time Champion at the PSAC Championships, finishing first in the 1000-yard freestyle and 1650 free. He also finished third in the 200 free. Demesy followed this up with three All-America certificates at the NCAA Division II Championships, earning All-America honors in the 1000 and 1650 free while grabbing an honorable mention All-America certificate in the 500 free. The senior won 10 PSAC Championships during his college career along with 11 All-America citations (7 ALL-America; 5 Honorable Mention All-America). He will graduate as the greatest distance swimmer in PSAC history after winning the 1650 and 1000 free each of the past four years while setting the school and conference records in both events.
Demesy's honor marks the 20th time that a Golden Rams swimmer has been named Athlete of the Year, and he is the first three-time winner since assistant coach
Victor Polyakov was recognized as Athlete of the Year four years in a row from 2013-14 through 2016-17. Polyakov, the PSAC's only four-time Athlete of the Year recipient, and Demesy, join former Golden Ram Reggie Shearer, who was honored in 2004, 2005 and 2006, as the only three-time winners in conference history.
Diez won two individual conference crowns while also swimming with the 800 free relay squad that won first place at the PSAC Championships. He placed second in the 1000 free and fourth in the 1650 while swimming on the runner-up foursome in the 400 free relay.
Mazurek earns his fifth Men's Swimming Coach of the Year certificate, and second consecutive plaudit. He also has seven Coach of the Year awards as the head coach of the Golden Rams' women's squad. Between the two teams, Mazurek has been the Coach of the Year 12 times in his career and has been honored alongside at least one of his programs every year, except 2021, when West Chester did not compete due to COVID-19 restrictions.
