Ricky Berens
Berens came to the University of Texas in the fall of 2006 from North Carolina. Swimming for TSDHOF Hall of Fame coaches Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik, he was a 20-time all-American, member of two NCAA champion relay teams, and was a huge contributor to the Longhorns 2010 NCAA team title… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
Ken Merten
Merten was born in Akron, Ohio, but grew up in Los Angeles, California. He attended SMU, where he won individual national championships in the 100 and 200 breaststroke (the first in the history of SMU swimming) and set new American records in doing so. Merten won a silver medal in the 200 breastroke at the 1963 Pan American Games and followed that up four years later at the 1967 Pan American Games with a pair of bronze medals in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. At the 1967 World University Games, he won three gold medals in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 4x100 medley relay, which set a world record… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
Melissa Briley Mieras
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Melissa Briley Mieras began her diving career at the famed Shamrock Hilton under the tutelage of TSDHOF inductee Nancy (Duty) Cunningham. The success of aquatic sports at the Shamrock produced numerous other TSDHOF inductees: Phil Hansel, swimming coach, Joy Cushman, synchronized swimming coach, diver Cynthia Potter, and swimmer John Vogel. It could not have been a better place for a seven-year-old to begin a successful 16-year journey in competitive diving… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
H.G. Pete Payne
Payne accidentally entered into swimming when someone needed him to take over a swim class as a 17-year-old who did not know the four basic competitive strokes. But it was no accident that 43 years later, he is one of the only three NISCA coaches to have won five or more state championships in two different states, having won 11 swimming and diving championships in Oklahoma and Texas. He was Texas Coach of the Year three times and nominated for National High School Coach of the Year… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
Lifetime Achievement Award:
Chuck & Sherel Knesel
Chuck and Sherel began working diving meets for Mike Brown in 1983. Chuck created the first computer software to score diving meets and print dive sheets, which was used at every major competition, NCAA and USD, until 2001. Chuck announced, while Sherel scored virtually every meet at the UT swim center as well as three Olympic trials, 22 national championship meets, and the 1996 Olympic Games… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
Wally Pryor Distinguished Team Award:
The Woodlands Swimming & Diving Team
When The Woodlands opened in 1974, the commercial core was a project originally identified as the CLCC (Commercial Leisure and Conference Center). This project included The Woodlands Conference Center, the Wharf Shopping Center, and The Woodlands Athletic Center (the WAC). In July 1973, Dick Smith (U.S. Olympic Diving Coach 1964 and 1968, International Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree) and Tom Boak (International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree) met in Scottsdale, Arizona, to develop the program for what would become the WAC. It was from this program that the plans were developed and the facility was built… [Full Bio, Videos & Photos]
