Rigamonti and Cagnotto Take C-USA Honors

IRVING, Texas, April 9. CONFERENCE USA honored the league's most outstanding student-athletes in swimming and diving on Friday. The recipients were selected by a vote of the Conference USA swimming and diving head coaches. SMU’s Flavia Rigamonti was named 2006 C-USA Swimmer of the Year, while Houston’s Tania Cagnotto earned the Diver of the Year accolade, as announced by the conference office.

Rigamonti broke two meet and pool records en route to capturing the 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle crowns at the 2006 Conference USA Championship. The senior, who was named Co-Swimmer of the C-USA Meet on Feb. 25, notched over 10 first-place finishes and over 15 top-three finishes this season. Rigamonti garnered Swimmer of the Week honors a league-record four times this season.

In February, the Switzerland native topped the C-USA Meet record in the 1,650-yard freestyle event with a time of 15:59.96 and earned the gold in the 500 free with a time of 4:40.55. That mark beat the previous championship record of 4:45.90, which was set by Maria Oberg of Cincinnati in 2002. Rigamonti concluded her collegiate career in Federal Way, Wash., at the 2006 Spring Championships, competing among 700 elite athletes.

Seeded for a seventh place finish in the 400-meter freestyle event, the veteran pulled a silver medal and a time of 4:16.44 and posted a time of 16:24.56 for first-place in the 1,500-meter free. She is a four-year All-American in the 500 and 1,650-yard free as well as a five-time NCAA Champion.

Cagnotto was a unanimous selection after establishing herself in her first collegiate season as one of UH and Conference USA’s finest divers. The Bolzano, Italy, native swept all three diving events at the C-USA Championship, joining former Cougar and five-time NCAA individual national champion Yulia Pakhalina as the only divers to accomplish that feat.

At the 2006 NCAA meet, Cagnotto scored 338.45 points to earn an eighth-place finish in the 3-meter springboard and 286.95 points to finish 11th on the 1-meter springboard. Those performances earned Cagnotto All-America honors as a freshman. The Cougar won both the 1- and 3-meter springboard events at the 2006 NCAA Zone D meet. Cagnotto also was a seven-time C-USA Diver of the Week honoree, setting a new UH single-season record in that category.

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