BYU’s Alexia Jackson Hansen named Big 12 women’s diver of the week

BYU's Alexia Jackson Hansen was named the Big 12 women's diver of the week and gave the Cougars their first award of the season.

This is the second time Jackson Hansen received this honor. She also won the title in January.

Having a fast start is a great sign of success in the upcoming season as Jackson Hansen has previously been on the All-Big 12 Second Team and advanced to the championship round on both 1- and 3-meter at NCAA Zone E Diving.

She is one of five athletes to be given honors by the Big 12 and only one of two athletes to not come from Arizona State. The other athlete is West Virgina’s Owen Recker, who won the weekly award for men’s diving.

Caroline Bentz, a women’s swimmer for the Sun Devils, was able to take home two awards: the Big 12 women’s swimmer and newcomer of the week. Along with her, ASU’s Ilya Kharun won men’s swimmer of the week and Tommy Palmer won the men’s newcomer of the week.

Arizona State’s dominance in the weekly awards showcased why it's nationally ranked No. 6 and No. 21 for its men's and women's teams.

Earlier in the week, Jackson Hansen competed at the Intermountain Shootout hosted by Colorado Mesa Univeristy. Alongside Jackson and the other BYU swimmers, athletes from Utah and Colorado State University Pueblo competed as well. CSU Pueblo was only featured in the women's swimming events and did not compete in any diving events.

This meet proved to be a dominant performance from Jackson Hansen as she swept both the 3-meter dive and the 1-meter dive event. In the 3-meter dive, Jackson Hansen had 54 points more than runner-up Jenna Hurley, a diver for CMU.

With her at the helm, the Cougars won against CMU 274-136 after two days of competition.

Overall, BYU’s women's swim and dive was able to come out with three wins after scoring a combined 264 points higher than the other three universities.

Meanwhile the mens team won by a combined 170 points higher than Utah and CMU.

On top of that, the meet also featured a new school record for BYU as Tanner Edwards got a 21.43 time in the 50-fly event. The record previously belonged to Edwards teammate Jordan Tiffany.

Up next for BYU’s swim and dive team is a trip Texas as it faces off against both TCU and the host of the meet, Texas A&M. The Aggies boast a men’s team that ranks No. 12 and a women’s team that is ranked No.16. The meet will take place Oct. 18-19.