Mark Murdock enters his sixth season as the diving coach for the North Texas swimming and diving program.
Year five saw a young slew of Mean Green divers make their debuts for North Texas. The season was highlighted by junior Meghan Miller’s school record-breaking platform performance at the Conference USA Championships. Her prelim score of 208.65 put her at the top of the North Texas record books.
During his fourth season, Mean Green divers made huge strides in pushing North Texas to their highest Conference Championships finish in program history, third place. Sophomore Meghan Miller placed sixth in the A final of the three-meter with a score of 262.70 while senior Averie Ruiz won the B final with a score of 269. North Texas divers claimed the top-three spots in the B final of the one-meter with Miller (263.45), Ruiz (244.05) and junior Gaby Silva (234.8) going 1-2-3 respectively.
In his third year the Mean Green recorded their second-highest finish since joining Conference USA when they finished fourth at the Conference Championships., junior Averie Ruiz advanced to the A final in the one-meter and three-meter events, placing sixth and eighth, respectively. Freshman Meghan Miller won the B final in both events and took sixth in the championship final from the platform with a score of 197.75, the fourth-best score in program history.
In his second season, junior Cecilia Hernandez secured the highest finish of any North Texas diver in the three-meter dive at the C-USA Championship with a score of 218.40, good for ninth place. Sophomore Averie Ruiz took 10th with a score of 216.75 and earned C-USA Diver of the Week honors after a win in the three-meter dive in a dual meet with Rice.
In his first season, senior Jasmine Abercrombie placed fifth overall and set the school record with a score of 207.65 in the platform competition at the Conference USA Championships, while junior Samantha Scheck advanced to the “A” final in all three diving competitions. Both Abercrombie and Scheck also earned Conference USA Diver of the Week earlier in the season.
In his three seasons at Northern Colorado, he coached three NCAA Zone Diving Qualifiers and most recently was named the Western Athletic Conference diving coach of the year and coached the conference diver of the year in Savanna Meadows.
In his three seasons as an assistant, Kelsey Smith and Sara Moldenhauer, as well as Meadows, all earned WAC Diver of the Week honors and all three divers also qualified for the NCAA Zone Meet. He also helped guide Northern Colorado to a program-best third-place finish at the Western Athletic Conference Championships this past spring.
This past season, under Murdock’s tutelage, the Bears placed three divers on WAC all-conference teams, including Meadows, who won the one-meter and platform league titles to earn first team honors. Meadows set program records in both the 3 meter (327.25) and platform (222.80). She also finished in the top 25 in all three diving events at the NCAA zone meet, including a program-best 22nd-place finish on the three-meter board.
Prior to his time at Northern Colorado, Murdock dove at Wyoming, where he received his bachelor’s degree in social science in May, 2012, and spent his final year with the Cowboys as the volunteer assistant coach.
In addition to being an honorable mention All-American and a two-time Mountain West Conference champion, Murdock also holds the Wyoming platform and three-meter records and the UW pool records on both the one-meter and three-meter boards.
Competing on the national and international level, Murdock and his diving partner Dashiell Enos finished fifth in the synchronized men’s platform at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, 2012, while he represented the United States at the Canada Cup for Synchronized Platform Diving in April, 2011.
Mark Murdock is a native of nearby Flower Mound.
