Men’s Swim & Dive All-Conference Awards: Whittier’s Zika, Pomona-Pitzer’s Matheis Earn Athlete of the Year Honors

Double gold medalist Honza Zika of Whittier College earned Athlete of the Year honors and Tommy Matheis of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges repeated as Diver of the Year to headline the 2026 SCIAC Men’s Swimming & Diving All-Conference team.

After helping the Poets to their best relay finish (fourth) in at least a decade, the junior college transfer put the conference on notice with a superb 400-yard individual medley performance to open the third night of competition. Zika rallied from fifth place at the halfway point to out-split the field by nearly two seconds on the breaststroke leg alone and win by 2.5 seconds, then followed that up the very next night with another come-from-behind win in the 200 Fly, again out-splitting the field by almost 1.5 seconds. Both times represented significant drops and have Zika in position to qualify for the NCAA Championship.

Matheis matched both results while upping both diving scores from last year’s Newcomer of the Year campaign. The Sagehen won the 3-meter competition by 26.6 points with a score of 535.15 and was runner-up again on the 1m board by just 4.3 points with a score of 481.10.

Chapman University’s Aidan Trautwein was named Newcomer of the Year after notching a pair of third-place finishes on each board. The rookie scored a 507.70 on the 1m board and a 466.55 on the 3m as the future of Panthers diving following in the footsteps of graduating seniors Reid Omilian and Jake Randazzo.

Simon Hu of Caltech was presented with the Character Award. The two-year team captain, two-time Scholar All-American, DIII All-America Honorable Mention, five-time All-SCIAC honoree, NCAA National Championship qualifier and holder of two program records has done extensive work toward becoming a physician having already been accepted to Medical School upon graduation. Hu has conducted research in incology and drug development, evolutionary biology, neural regeneration and emotional and social cognition while also serving as a hospice volunteer, emergency medical responder, Caltech Wellness Services peer advocate and program director for ACEing Autism.

Coaching Staff of the Year recognition went to Mike Jafari and the Whittier College staff. The Poets surged from eighth place and 186 points at the 2025 SCIAC Championship into fifth place, nearly doubling their score with 352.2 points and ranking just 78.5 shy of fourth place. Whittier earned six All-SCIAC places with the men’s 800-yard Freestyle Relay finishing fourth for the first time since the current staff took the helm of the team in 2019 and Zika earning the program’s first Athlete of the Year honor since 2008.

Three swimmers reached the podium three times during this Championship with Diego Hodge and Casey Jacobs representing Pomona-Pitzer while Kenny Eckel headlined the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges team. Eckel, Hodge and Caltech’s Zachary Pestrikov were the only three swimmers to make the podium in all three individual events. Adrian Clement of the Sagehens concludes a superb career with 22 All-SCIAC performances while Jacobs takes over as the new active leader with 14 career accolades. 200 Breast champion Evan Deedy claimed a ninth career title and totaled 18 All-SCIAC swims over four years at CMS. Chapman’s Trent Calloway contributed on four All-SCIAC relays to reach a 12^th career podium, followed closely by Hodge (11) and fellow Panthers Riley Coleman (10). Sean Su (CMS) and 2025 Athlete of the Year Kyle Huang (PP) each sit on nine All-SCIAC honors while Eckel and another Panther, Max Polovinkin, have totaled eight. Spencer Merodio (CMS) added a medal this year to reach six in two seasons while Henry Cannon (PP) and Thomas Langlois (WC) each reached five career accolades.