NCAA Women’s Championships: Chiara Pellacani Holds off Sophie Verzyl by .25 Points on 1-Meter
There was very little separating Chiara Pellacani and Sophie Verzyl all day Thursday on 1-meter diving at the NCAA Championships.
In the end, the margin was a minuscule .25 seconds.
South Carolina’s Verzyl led through prelims and the first three rounds of finals before Pellacani took the lead in the fourth round. Verzyl landed her sixth and final dive, though, getting within 0.25 points of the Miami senior.
Pellacani, the Italian Olympian who started her college career at LSU, defended her title with a score of 345.70. Verzyl was second in 3:45.45.
Bailey Cranford of Texas jumped from seventh to third on the final dive in what may prove an important coup in the team race with 320.65. She was 2.4 points up on Florida’s Camyla Monroy, while Tennessee freshman Desharne Bent-Ashmeil steadily grew into finals to finish fifth.
Pellacani was satisfied enough with her performance that she wasn’t watching Verzyl’s final effort.
“I didn’t watch it,” she said. “I was already really happy about my dives. But that would have been the cherry on top for my last year, and I’m really happy. But it was also very fun, because she’s doing an amazing job. She’s working very well. Her dives look great. So it was very exciting, and I just had a lot of fun.”
Pellacani won this event last year and was fifth in 2023. But the second-highest scorer in last year’s finals was ninth-place Verzyl, who recovered from a down prelims to win the consolation final.
On Thursday, Verzyl led after prelims with a score of 329.90, Pellacani second in 306.40. Verzyl had 174.20 points after the first three dives of finals, 3.4 points up on Pellacani. But the Italian nailed her 105B in the fourth round, going into the lead by more than 12 points.
“It was a little different because we had that break between the third and fourth rounds, so I had to change my dives that were on my list,” Pellacani said. “So it was the first time that I had that list, but I think it was the best option since we had the break.”
The lead with 13.45 after five dives. Pellacani was just solid with her 403B for 54 points. But Verzyl’s 5152B was spectacular as the final dive of the competition, scoring 67.2 points to make up all but a fraction of the gap.
Cranford was seventh entering the final dive but scored 66 points on her 305B to leap four spots to third. She had finished 13th last year.
Bent-Ashmeil, a freshman from Great Britain, started finals eight but steadily rose to fifth. Miami’s Margo O’Meara was running third before a tough final round dropped her to sixth. Elna Widerstrom was seventh for Minnesota, while Shiyun Lai of Kansas was eighth, a spot down from last year.
Event 6 Women 1 mtr Diving
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NCAA: N 365.75 3/17/2022 Mia Vallee, Miami (FL)
Meet: M 365.75 3/17/2022 Mia Vallee, Miami (Florida)
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== Championship Final ===
1 Pellacani, Chiara SR Miami (FL) 306.40 345.70 20
2 Verzyl, Sophie SR South Carolina 329.90 345.45 17
3 Cranford, Bayleigh JR Texas 303.70 320.65 16
4 Monroy, Camyla JR Florida 296.70 318.25 15
5 Bent-Ashmeil, Desharn FR Tennessee 289.80 313.50 14
6 O'Meara, Margo SR Miami (FL) 295.60 311.80 13
7 Widerstrom, Elna JR Minnesota 295.55 303.95 12
8 Lai, Shiyun JR Kansas 288.55 299.05 11
=== Preliminaries ===
9 Worobel, Avery SO Purdue 282.20 9
10 Hubert, Lotti FR Arkansas 276.55 7
11 Milligan, Kiarra SR Michigan 276.40 6
12 Roselli, Ella JR Indiana 275.70 5
13 Del Angel, Viviana SR Minnesota 275.55 4
14 Knight, Sofia SO UNC 271.60 3
15 Oakley, Joslyn SR TAMU 269.70 2
16 Hentschel, Lena SR OSU 267.50 1
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