PHOENIX – The annual Golden Goggles Banquet is less than a month away. Over the next few weeks in our Poll of the Week, we are going to ask who you think should win the various categories. Last week we started with the break out swimmer of the year. Your choices included Maya Dirado, Katie McLaughlin, Ryan Murphy, Cierra Runge and Kendyl Stewart.
Note: YouTube Measures Views Only For Episodes Watched On YouTube.com
Subscribe to our YouTube channel!
The votes are in and it was a pretty tight race for first. Cierra Runge won the Swimming World poll with 28% of the votes. Runge made a splash in 2014 with runner-up finishes to Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky while earning a spot on the Pan Pacific Championship team. The 18 year-old has just started her freshman year at Cal so make sure to watch for her in March at NCAAs. 200 butterfly rookie Katie McLaughlin came in second with 24% of the votes. Ryan Murphy, who was the youngest member of the USA men’s squad at the Pan Pacific Championships held 22% of the votes. He is a sophomore this year at Cal but as a freshman he won two NCAA titles. He was actually my pick for Breakout Swimmer. Maya DiRado came in 4th with 16% and Kendyl Stewart 5th. That was a very close poll, thank you for participating.
This week, let’s focus on the coaches behind the athletes. Who do you think deserves the Golden Goggle for Coach of the Year? Choices are: Bob Bowman (North Baltimore Aquatic Club), Dave Durden (University of Cal and California Aquatics), Bruce Gemmell (Nation’s Capital Swim Club) or Dave Marsh (SwimMAC Carolina). Please weigh in and let us know who you think deserves this award. We’ll bring you the results next week.