Berry and Saxman Earn Summit League Athlete of the Year Honors

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – University of Denver junior girls’s diver Savanna Berry was voted the Summit League Women’s Diver of the Year, and freshman girls’s swimmer Julia Saxman was named the Summit League Women’s Swimmer of the Year in a vote of the league’s head coaches, the convention workplace introduced on Thursday.
 
Berry earned her first girls’s diver of the yr honor on Thursday, after incomes her second-straight Summit League Diver of the Championship award earlier this winter. The Denver junior swept each particular person boards and led Denver to the diving group occasion win in February in Iowa City. In this yr’s NCAA Zones, Berry took 27^th within the girls’s 1-meter and 38^th on the 3-meter board. Berry turned within the fourth highest rating in program historical past on the 3-meter board, recording a 318.15 at El Pomar. The Lodi, California, native was a six-time Summit League Women’s Diver of the Week this season.
 
Saxman turned in a stellar freshman marketing campaign within the Mile High City, incomes Summit League Women’s Newcomer of the Championship honors and three Summit League Women’s Swimmer of the Week honors in 2025-26. At the Summit League Championships Saxman, was part of 4 successful relays, whereas additionally incomes particular person occasion titles within the 50 free (22.75), the 100 fly (52.86) and the 100 free (50.14). Saxman wasted no time inserting herself in Denver’s top-10 occasions in program historical past, turning within the fourth-fastest time within the 100 fly (52.86), the sixth quickest time within the 50 free (22.75) and the seventh quickest time within the 200 fly (2:00.44). The Germantown, Wisconsin, native received the 50 fly on the 2026 CSCAA National Invitational Championships, this system’s first occasion win at NICs in eight years. Saxman additionally completed fourth within the 100 fly and 22^nd within the 50 free on the occasion.
 
Berry’s award is the fourth-straight Summit League Women’s Diver of the Year for the Pioneers, whereas Saxman’s award is DU’s 13^th-straight Summit League Women’s Swimmer of the Year honor. Saxman is the fourth DU freshman to earn swimmer of the yr honors in program historical past, and the primary since Bailey Andison received her first of three consecutive Summit League Women’s Swimmer of the Year honors in 2015-16. Michaela Amereller (2002-03) and Karen Iverson (2004-05) each received Sun Belt Women’s Swimmer of the Year honors as freshmen.
 
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