Patterson Medal Winners
Vázquez Montaño , Aranza
Aranza Vázquez Montaño
- Induction:
- 2025
- Class:
- 2025
2025 – Aranza Vázquez Montaño: Women’s Swimming & Diving (La Paz, Mexico)
Vázquez Montaño won both the 1- and 3-meter NCAA diving championships in 2023 and 2024, becoming the second diver in ACC history, and the first women’s diver, to win four NCAA titles.
The two-time member of the Mexico Olympic Team (2020 and 2024) tied track and field thrower Laura Gerraughty and distance runner Shalane Flanagan for the second-most individual NCAA titles ever by a female Tar Heel athlete (trailing only swimmer Sue Walsh’s eight).
Vázquez Montaño was an eight-time ACC champion and was named the Most Valuable Women’s Diver at the ACC Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She tied ACC records by winning the 1-meter and 3-meter titles three times apiece and added a pair of titles in platform diving.
She set the Tar Heel records in all three disciplines, totaling 379.25 points on the 1 meter in 2023, 409.60 on 3 meters in 2023 and 337.10 on platform in 2021. She also holds the ACC Championship record in 1-meter diving.
Vázquez Montaño earned 11 All-America honors, including five first-team awards, and was selected ACC Women’s Diver of the Week 18 times. She became the first Tar Heel diver, male or female, to win the Patterson Medal and the third member of the women’s swimming and diving team to win the award (Bonny Brown in 1980, Sue Walsh in 1984 and Katie Hathaway in 2002).
Vázquez Montaño won both the 1- and 3-meter NCAA diving championships in 2023 and 2024, becoming the second diver in ACC history, and the first women’s diver, to win four NCAA titles.
The two-time member of the Mexico Olympic Team (2020 and 2024) tied track and field thrower Laura Gerraughty and distance runner Shalane Flanagan for the second-most individual NCAA titles ever by a female Tar Heel athlete (trailing only swimmer Sue Walsh’s eight).
Vázquez Montaño was an eight-time ACC champion and was named the Most Valuable Women’s Diver at the ACC Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She tied ACC records by winning the 1-meter and 3-meter titles three times apiece and added a pair of titles in platform diving.
She set the Tar Heel records in all three disciplines, totaling 379.25 points on the 1 meter in 2023, 409.60 on 3 meters in 2023 and 337.10 on platform in 2021. She also holds the ACC Championship record in 1-meter diving.
Vázquez Montaño earned 11 All-America honors, including five first-team awards, and was selected ACC Women’s Diver of the Week 18 times. She became the first Tar Heel diver, male or female, to win the Patterson Medal and the third member of the women’s swimming and diving team to win the award (Bonny Brown in 1980, Sue Walsh in 1984 and Katie Hathaway in 2002).
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