Mike Brown is entering his 18th year of coaching the University of Hawaii diving teams with his wife Anita Rossing. The accomplishments of both the men’s and women’s diving teams are quite unique at the University of Hawaii. The high level of accomplishment established by the divers in the past should inspire this year’s diving team to strive for equally lofty heights.
Seven individual Rainbow Wahine divers have qualified and competed at 12 different NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in the past 17 years. These divers earned 14 All America honors (top 8 finishes at the NCAAs) and nine Honorable Mention All America honors (placing 9th – 16th at the NCAAs).
QiongJie Huang and Emma Friesen won individual NCAA Championship titles on the 1 meter springboard in 2005 and 2008. The Rainbow Wahine diving team of QiongJie Huang, Rui Wang, and Megan Farrow was the highest scoring diving team at the 2006 Women’s NCAA Championships, and 2nd in 2005. Friesen was named an NCAA Diver of the Year in 2008.
The Rainbow Wahine divers have joined the UH swimmers to win the 2006 Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championship and two MPSF Swimming and Diving Championships in 2015 and 2017. UH divers have won 41 individual Conference titles and were named Conference Diver of the Year 14 times. Brown and Rossing were voted Conference Diving Coaches of the Year 12 times for coaching the women’s teams.
On the men’s side, 6 different Rainbow Warrior divers have qualified and competed at 11 different Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The Hawaii men earned six All America honors and eight Honorable Mention All America honors, while Magnus Frick was NCAA runner-up on 1 meter in both 2007 and 2008. Amund Gismervik was 3rd on Platform in 2014. The divers contributed with the swimmers to win two different conference team titles over the past 17 years: 2001 PCSD Conference, and 2011 Conference USA. The Rainbow Warriors have won 29 individual conference diving titles, while being named Conference Diver of the year nine times.
The Rainbow divers lost only one diver to graduation in 2017, Lauren Larsen, and will return the other six athletes, including 2017 MPSF Conference Divers of the Year, Madison Sthamann and Johan Sandell. The addition of a standout freshman, Ivey Houser to the Rainbow Wahine divers and transfer, Lucas Cooperman to the Rainbow Warrior divers will give the team a lot to look forward to in the diving pool in 2017.
Mike Brown says, “I am looking forward to balancing out my 18th year at Hawaii with my 18 years of coaching at the University of Texas … not so much comparing accomplishments but
just looking back at the people, the coaches and the athletes that made each of these lifetimes of coaching so special and so fulfilling.”
“In the meantime, I get to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii, the joy of working with Anita and the amazement of watching our daughter Rika succeed at all of her chosen endeavors. Throw in the magical moments of being with the dolphins and whales. I’m pretty lucky!”
