O’Meara earns Duke’s sole diving bid to NCAA Championships

Six Blue Devils traveled to Auburn, Ala., to compete for a spot at the NCAA Diving Championships, and senior Margo O’Meara returned with two tickets. 

Duke’s star diver finished second in the 3-meter dive and seventh in the 1-meter, posting final scores of 699.20 and 592.25, respectively. The performances earned her a chance to compete at the women’s NCAA Championships, where she will contend for national titles in Federal Way, Wash., along with several Blue Devil swimmers.

Since it can be difficult to standardize judging across the country, divers do not qualify for NCAA Championships with season scores like swimmers do. They instead secure their spots by competing at one of five NCAA Zones meets across the country. The top four male and female divers in each event from each region automatically earn a trip to the championships, with additional spots awarded based on how divers from that zone fared in the previous year. The Blue Devils competed in Zone B, which offered nine spots in the women’s 1-meter dive and seven apiece in the 3-meter and platform this year.

O’Meara punched her first postseason ticket on the 1-meter springboard. After finishing eighth in Monday’s preliminary rounds with a score of 294.15, the St. Louis native used her final six dives to move into seventh. Her best dive was also one of her most difficult — a forward 2 ½ somersault pike that earned a score of 50.40.

The former ACC medalist continued the show as she stepped up to the 3-meter, racking up 344.05 points with her first six dives. She improved on that third-place seeding to take second at finals by a margin of just 7.2 points. In both sessions of the 3-meter, O’Meara’s reverse 2 ½ somersault pike garnered the most points. That dive collected 63.00 in the morning and 67.50 in the afternoon after the senior improved her net score from 21.00 to 22.50.

While O’Meara was the only diver who earned a trip to NCAA Championships, other Blue Devils posted respectable performances as well. Sophomore Charles Berman finished 21st in both the men’s 3-meter and platform dives, while freshman Kiera Lu finished 24th in the women’s 1-meter. Her classmate Tynan O’Donaghue finished 24th in the men’s 3-meter as Evan Brown and Yannis Schattman rounded out the competition for Duke.

O’Meara will join swimmers Kaelyn Gridley, Ali Pfaff, KyAhn Truong, Clare Logan and Tatum Wall as they compete against the rest of the Division I NCAA qualifiers next weekend.

Abby DiSalvo

Abby DiSalvo is a Trinity sophomore and assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.