The Texas men’s and women’s diving teams dominated the UT Diving Invitational held Nov. 19-21 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Longhorn senior Jordan Windle and junior Paola Pineda each took home two wins over SEC opponents LSU and Arkansas to highlight Texas’ overall performance.
Pineda took the 3-meter competition after fighting her way from third place, which she had occupied through the first four rounds behind Arkansas’ Brooke Schultz and Maha Amer. All that changed as she pulled ahead after her fifth dive. A reverse 2 ½ somersault tuck gave her two scores of 8.0 and one of 8.5 from the judges.
This gave Pineda a small lead over Schultz, but she continued to stay on top through the sixth round. Pineda followed her 3-meter win with a close second place finish to Arkansas’ Schultz in the 1-meter competition on Friday. On Saturday, Pineda followed up with a decisive win in the platform diving competition, which she led through all five rounds.
Windle, an All-American and NCAA champion, took the 3-meter competition on Friday. For the first few dives, Windle sat in third place behind LSU’s Juan Hernandez and UT sophomore Andrew Harness. After his third dive of six, Windle overtook Hernandez, whom he spent most of the invitational competing against.
Hernandez won the 1-meter diving competition on Thursday, while Windle took third place behind Hernandez and freshman Noah Duperre. Windle got the best of Hernandez on Saturday after winning the platform competition on Saturday. Hernandez led through the first three rounds, but Windle threw down a 96.53 score on his third dive, a 3 ½ somersault tuck. One judge awarded Windle a perfect 10 while another gave him a 9.5. This dive closed the gap and set Windle up to take the lead on his fourth attempt.
In his first meet competing for Texas, Duperre took second place on Thursday night with a score of 367.20 in the 1-meter diving competition. Duperre followed up with a third place finish in the 3-meter competition on Friday and a fifth place finish in the platform competition on Saturday.
The Longhorns are set to host a dual meet against the TCU men’s and women’s teams on Jan. 9 for one final tune-up before the Big 12 Championship meet in February. The meet will be hosted at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center and will be closed to the public.
