Two members of the diving team competed in the NCAA Division I Zone A Diving Championships hosted by Rutgers University earlier this week.
Both senior Shaylee Daniels and sophomore Landon Orth competed in the 1-meter dive, scoring 187.60 and 215.15, respectively. Neither made it to the final round of the meet, both landing in the bottom 10 of the preliminary results.
Daniels is the first woman in Lafayette College swimming and diving history to advance to regionals, which she said was “super awesome.”
“I think that I’m lucky enough to have accomplished a lot of firsts during my time at Lafayette,” she said.
Daniels described her dives as not her best performance but added that having “six solid dives without any huge mistakes” was a “big accomplishment” for her.
“At the end of the day, I did what I was there to do,” she said. “I can’t really be too upset with myself.”
“We’re such a small school, and you go and you’re with all of the biggest and the best kids in the country, and I thought she held up really well,” diving coach Cary Lehman said about Daniels.
Orth said that he contracted norovirus a week before the competitions and was unable to practice, which “heavily, heavily impacted” his performance.
“I didn’t do nearly as well as I wanted to, but I’m still happy I was able to show up and do my best,” Orth said.
To qualify for the NCAA swimming and diving regionals, athletes must achieve set standards for times and points during the season. For any 6-dive list, the men’s 1-meter diving point standard is 300 and the women’s is 265.
Orth qualified in the first meet of the season against Loyola University with a 315.30 score.
“Getting it done out of the way was a very nice stress reliever,” he said. “Making it every year has been a goal of mine.”
Orth also qualified for regionals last year, the second diver in Lafayette swimming and diving history to do so. This was Daniels’ first time diving at regionals.
“It was always something that I wanted to do, but it didn’t really seem like a realistic goal for me,” she said.
Daniels qualified against Lehigh University in November with a score of 267.90.
“I just remember whenever my official score came out, I was so excited,” she said. “I literally yelled into the stands. I was like, ‘I’m going to Zones!'”
Divers must place sixth or higher in an event to automatically qualify for the NCAA championships. Those who place between sixth and 12th may also compete in that event during championships, barring that they placed sixth or higher in another event during regionals.
“My dive career is more than I ever could have asked for coming here,” said Daniels, who only began diving in college. “It’s been a long four years, but I’m definitely going to miss it a lot.”
