2022 NCAA Women’s Championships: Minnesota’s Sarah Bacon Repeats as 3-Meter Champion

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Editorial content for the 2022 NCAA DI Women's Swimming & Diving Championships coverage is sponsored by Swiss Timing. See full event coverage.
Follow Swiss Timing on Instagram at @omega #OMEGAOfficialTimekeeper

Minnesota senior Sarah Bacon repeated as NCAA Champion on the 3-meter board on Friday, the final individual event on Day 4 of the 2022 NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships.

Bacon was the lone diver to surpass 400 points, winning the event with 409.25 points.

Bacon won the Honda Award as the top senior athlete in the NCAA last year but chose to come back for the extra year of eligibility that the NCAA offered for athletes whose seasons and/or postseasons were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My original plan was to do college season last year, then hopefully make the Olympic team and kind of be done with diving and kind of get on with my life. I ended up not making the Olympic team and I made the decision to stick around and train until 2024, and me and my coach decided with an extra year of eligibility that I would stick around for one more college season,” Bacon said.

Bacon was edged out on the 1-meter board on Thursday and returned to the top of the podium on Friday, which gave her a little extra motivation heading into the 3-meter competition.

“One-meter didn’t go how I wanted, so I had a little bit of a flame underneath me which really helped me today,” Bacon said.

Indiana took the next two spots with senior Kristen Hayden taking second with 397.20 points and sophomore Tarrin Gilliland finishing third with 382.00.

Arizona junior Delaney Schnell tied for fourth with Miami’s Mia Vallee, who won the 1-meter board on Thursday, both finishing with 376.20 points.

Texas had two of the final three finalist spots with Paola Pineda finishing sixth with 359.50 and freshman Hailey Hernandez taking eighth (339.70), one spot ahead of Stanford senior Carolina Sculti (344.00).

Event 13  Women 3 mtr Diving
=========================================================================
         Meet: M 437.75  3/20/2009 Christina Loukas, Indiana
         Pool: P 429.05  2/23/2011 Abby Johnson, Duke
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Bacon, Sarah           SR Minnesota          386.25     409.25   20  
  2 Hayden, Kristen        SR Indiana            381.45     397.20   17  
  3 Gilliland, Tarrin      SO Indiana            351.50     382.00   16  
  4 Schnell, Delaney       JR Arizona            348.40     376.20   14.5
  4 Vallee, Mia            JR Miami (Florida)    356.55     376.20   14.5
  6 Pineda, Paola          SR Texas              357.40     359.50   13  
  7 Sculti, Carolina       SR Stanford           348.30     344.00   12  
  8 Hernandez, Hailey      FR Texas              366.35     339.70   11  
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Vasquez Montano, Aran  SO UNC                330.20     355.80    9  
 10 Skilken, Jordan        JR Texas              332.55     348.20    7  
 11 Knapton, Abigail       SR Rutgers            331.20     340.75    6  
 12 Amer, Maha             JR Florida            325.60     339.75    5  
 13 Knight, Kyndal         SR Kentucky           331.20     339.70    4  
 14 Straub, Kelly          SR Notre Dame         316.85     324.25    3  
 15 Mirafuentes, Melissa   JR Wyoming            318.05     317.70    2  
 16 O'Meara, Margo         FR Duke               324.75     301.10    1

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use