Women’s Swimming & Diving Community Service Honors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all 21 league-sponsored sports. The Community Service Team looks to highlight athletes from each school who give back to the community in their outstanding service efforts. The 2023 SEC Women’s Swimming & Diving Community Service Team is as follows:

Kensey McMahon, Graduate, Alabama

McMahon has been the team representative for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for four years and currently serves on the executive board as chair of campus collaboration. As chairman, he serves as the campaign manager/public relations coordinator as the athlete’s representative for all homecoming activities. In addition, McMahon serves as the school’s adaptive athletic event coordinator. Throughout her time at SAAC, she has helped with the annual Halloween Extravaganza, Beat Hunger Food Drive and has participated in read alouds as well as assisted with physical education classes at our local elementary school. While visiting the Tuscaloosa school, McMahon has been on the mentoring team with Brothers and Big Sisters of West Alabama. They have been Big for three years where they meet every week for lunch. McMahon supports her Little with friendship, homework help and encouragement in all her endeavors. During his time at the University of Alabama, he was also an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Reilly Shaner, Senior, Arkansas

Shaner participated in the Tyson Food Truck Drive. She also helps volunteer at the Walker Park-Trail Cleanup Project. Shaner contributed to the University of Arkansas Student Engagement Day on campus and was part of the homecoming post-event clean up. She helps lead the annual Shop with the Razorbacks event during the holidays, participates in holiday caroling for veterans and helps with Christmas Gift Wrapping.

Brynn Curtis, Junior, Auburn

Curtis has led the Auburn Women’s Swimming and Diving program in community service, donating more than 50 hours of community service time in 2022-23. He has been a staple at the Lee County Humane Society, and has been involved in projects at Story Brook Farms and the Big House Foundation. Curtis volunteers at INOVA hospital, helps organize food banks during Thanksgiving and Christmas and helps Special Olympics Alabama.

Nina Kucheran, Graduate, Florida

Kucheran works as a community greeter for Health Sciences North. She is also an advocate for mental health, volunteering for mental health training and events. Kucheran has been an exercise physiology volunteer, head campus captain, and swimming educator at a local elementary school.

Zoie Hartman, Senior, Georgia

During her time in Athens, Hartman has worked with Turkey Palooza, providing Thanksgiving groceries and meals to older adults and their families in the Athens area. She also works with Project Safe, donating items to victims of domestic violence, as well as Books for Keeps, cleaning and organizing warehouses for community book fairs. Hartman has assisted with Extra Special People (autistic, disabled, and special needs children) in throwing party nights, participating in prom nights for Special Olympics, and working with the Brooklyn Cemetery in Athens to restore and repair the area. Through the swim team, he has participated in the Swim Across America 5K race and worked with the team in the Team Impact partnership to befriend young leukemia survivors. Hartman has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll in all three years prior to his career. He is an inductee in the LEAD Leadership Education and Development Program and a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the Palladia secret society. In addition, Hartman was selected to represent UGA at the Women in Leadership Convention in Kansas City in October 2022.

Tori Orcutt, Junior, Kentucky

Orcutt has contributed more than 130 hours of community service since the start of the 2022-23 academic year. He has worked with Southland Children’s Ministries, AMACHI, Julius Marks Elementary School, Kentucky Swim Camp and others. Orcutt has been a mentor to youth in Lexington through the AMACHI organization that aims to help children who have been incarcerated. Other projects include teaching and leading activities for children, helping with Christmas drives and talking to primary school students. Orcutt is a member of the Air Force ROTC in Kentucky. He has won the Community Service Award at the CATSPY’S – UK Athletics annual awards banquet each of the past two years.

Jade Hannah, Sophomore, LSU

In December, Hannah assisted the Recreation and Parks Commission for East Baton Rouge Parish (BREC) by setting up, operating and cleaning up children’s community events. She is part of the Black Student Athlete Association (BSAA) and serves as Vice President of the Family committee in the swimming and diving programs. Hannah oversees the MLK Day of Service organization with BSAA at a local animal shelter.

Sierra Smith, Junior, Missouri

Smith has accumulated more than 100 hours of work service with the City of Columbia and Columbia Public Schools. They help Habitat for Humanity to help local families. Smith has spent the majority of his time working with the local group Turning the Point, spending time with the community playing bingo and leading Bible studies. He is a two-time member of the Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll.

Haley Mason, Junior, South Carolina

Mason has completed more than 65 hours of community service this academic year. He primarily spends his time volunteering at the Free Medical Clinic in Columbia, SC. The clinic provides health care at no cost to the Columbia community and the uninsured. Mason began working at the clinic in administration, filing paperwork and helping patients apply for federal financial aid. He began working directly at the clinic, performing initial assessments such as taking blood pressure and determining case histories to provide hospital referrals. Mason has also volunteered at Riverbanks Boo at the Zoo events and Junior Gamecock Club Halloween events where he passes out candy to children. She is a student from the South Carolina Honors College and plans to take the pre-law track where she will study public health policy. Mason has twice been a team captain for the university’s Relay for Life where he has assembled a team of more than 70 people to raise funds for the fight against cancer. He has also served on the university’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee and is on the SAAC and Swim & Dive Team community service teams. Mason is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and was a CSCAA Scholar All-American (Second Team) in 2022.

Margaret Marando, Junior, Tennessee

Marando has helped with several projects in Knoxville. During the 2021-22 academic year, he is a member of the VOLeaders Academy, which was developed to foster positive student-athlete leaders through sports to create positive social change. His time with the program culminated with a cultural exchange trip to Rwanda, where he applied his leadership skills and participated in service opportunities focused on community development and social change. While at the Project Life Movement event last year, he was pee swabbed and later found that he was a match for a four-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The deadly disease requires intensive surgery to harvest Marando’s bone marrow, but the choice to donate is simple and life-saving. He was a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection.

Caroline Theil, Senior, Texas A&M

Theil has volunteered to read to second graders in the local Bryan-College Station area as part of Rev’ved Up to Read. She is the Executive Board Leader at WE(3)-Women Encourage, Equip & Empower for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. In the fall of 2020, Theil signed on as a Peer Mentor at Hullabaloo U while also being part of Horizon Performance’s Emerging Leaders Program. He is also the Huddle Traditions Night Leader in Fall 2021 and 2022.

Chantal Jordan, Senior, Vanderbilt

Jordan served more than two years as a youth instructor with Swim America, managing groups of up to 15 individuals while teaching water safety and encouraging skill development to help young swimmers maximize their performance in the pool. She has also volunteered with Brookdale’s Fifty Forward Retirement Center and Senior Living for the past two years, and has twice participated in activities with Feed the Children. A member of the executive board of the Black Student-Athlete Group, Jordan is involved with the Pre-Nursing Society and has also participated in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes while attending women’s sports Bible study sessions. Named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of the last two seasons and a member of the 2019-20 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll, he has earned Dean’s List honors on four separate occasions during his college career. Jordan has been a team captain for the Commodores her senior season.