NCAA Women’s Championships: Aranza Vazquez Montano Sweeps Springboards – Again

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The 3-meter diving at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships quickly turned into a head-to-head battle between North Carolina’s Aranza Vazquez Montano and Texas’ duo.

Dive after dive, they were within a couple points from each other as each tried to make a move.

In the end it was Vazquez who swept both springboards for the second year in a row, this time winning 3-meter with a score of 364.75.

“It is hard to believe (I won both boards twice),” she said. “You just have to do everything you have like it is your last competition. It has been a long, hard year, but we practice for this. I wanted to win. It doesn’t matter if I am out of fuel, if I can win, I will win.”

Vazquez, an Olympian for Mexico, started with a 66.00 on her 405B to take the early lead and was at 119.20 after two dives, just a couple of points behind Texas’ Bridget O’Neil (125.40).

Her third dive got a mix of 7s and 8s and scored 64 to push her to 182.2.

But O’Neil was at 184.20 until she had a round of 4.5’s in the fourth round and dropped to fourth place.

Her teammate Hailey Hernandez then surged into second with 232.95 points, trailing Vazquez (240.70).

In the fifth round, Vazquez threw down a 5335D and nailed the twister, scoring a 56.55 to lead at 297.25, still just two points ahead of Hernandez (295.95) with one round to go.

Hernandez’s last dive was a 513D and gave her 46.20, but the degree of difficulty was 2.1 and put her in second place behind Indiana’s Anne Fowler.

Vazquez’s final dive was a 3.0 degree of difficulty and scored 67.50 points to give her the winning total of 364.75, and another repeat title.

“I know that that dive is one of my best dives and that is why it is last on my list,” Vazquez said. “I know that no matter how I am feeling, I can hit that. I knew we were close and I knew I could hit it. It just had to trust that feeling and go for it.”

Vazquez will now shift her springboard focus to the Olympics.

“This competition is a high level. Handling that pressure and adrenaline really helps pushing toward Paris,” she said. “That is one of the advantages I have of being in the U.S. in this system. There are so many high-level competitions.”

Fowler finished second in 342.45, just fractions of a point ahead of Herandez (342.15).

 Event 13  Women 3 mtr Diving
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 437.75  3/20/2009 Christina Loukas, Indiana
         Meet: M 437.75  3/20/2009 Christina Loukas, Indiana
         Pool: P 413.75  2/20/2014 Laura Ryan, Georgia
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Vazquez Montano, Aran  SR UNC                334.35     364.75   20  
  2 Fowler, Anne           SR Indiana            305.95     342.45   17  
  3 Hernandez, Hailey      JR Texas              332.95     342.15   16  
  4 McAfee, Sophia         JR Purdue             325.50     329.40   15  
  5 O'Neil, Bridget        SR Texas              339.85     319.90   14  
  6 Lavenant, Montserrat   SR LSU                322.20     305.40   13  
  7 Milligan, Kiarra       SO Michigan           307.00     288.65   12  
  8 Kaye, Elizabeth        JR Virginia           313.50     267.30   11  
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Oakley, Joslyn         SO TAMU               305.55     317.30    9  
 10 Hallaselka, Lauren     FR UCLA               300.50     315.30    7  
 11 Brady, Caroline        JR Notre Dame         296.35     312.50    6  
 12 Waxman, Holley         JR Utah               293.15     301.15    5  
 13 Wright, Daryn          SO Purdue             299.60     286.75    4  
 14 Lai, Shiyun            FR Kansas             291.75     281.95    3  
 15 Vear, Samantha         SR FSU                297.95     265.25    2  
 16 Trueb, Savana          SR UCLA               297.30     247.80    1

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