Ruiz Astorga, Gray Earn MVC Weekly Awards

LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock swimming and diving's Laura Ruiz Astorga and Samantha Gray have been selected as the Missouri Valley Conference's Swimmer and Diver of the Week, the league announced Tuesday afternoon.
 
Ruiz Astorga was part of four Trojan records that fell in this past weekend's Little Rock Christmas Invitational. Individually, Ruiz Astorga broke two records in the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke with times of 51.47 and 2:04.34, respectively. Her 100 free time was the third-fastest by an MVC swimmer this season while her 200 backstroke time was the seventh-fastest.
 
Along with teammates Nuria Gallego Murcia, Courtney Coe and Emma Doll, Little Rock broke the 400-yard medley relay record with a time of 3:51.53, fifth-fastest in the MVC this season. In the final event of the invitational, Ruiz Astorga, Doll, Coe and Tori Fryar broke the 400-yard freestyle relay with the third-fastest time in the conference this season at 3:28.19.
 
Gray posted a new personal best in the one-meter dive with a score of 273.70 in a trial on Friday. Before that, Gray first posted a new personal best with 259.90 in the one-meter dive event on Thursday. Gray then handed in her second-best score of the season in the three-meter dive with a score of 233.25.
 
Both Ruiz Astorga and Gray are the first Little Rock student-athletes to earn weekly Missouri Valley Conference awards since the Trojans joined the league in 2013. Former Trojan Valeriya Teplova was the last student-athlete to earn Swimmer of the Week honors in February of 2013, and former diver Megan Scott was the last Trojan to earn Diver of the Week honors in January of 2013.
 
Ruiz Astorga, Gray and the rest of the Trojans will return to action against Vanderbilt on Dec. 30 in the Donaghey Aqautic Center.