Senior diver Jordan Windle commanded the 2021 Big 12 Diving Championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on March 1-3.
Over the three-day meet, Windle effortlessly displayed an array of difficult dives, winning all three diving events held at the tournament: 1-meter, 3-meter and platform. These recent wins add to Windle’s whopping eight career Big 12 individual titles.
Windle’s best performance came on the last day of the tournament on the platform, an event he specializes in. After giving up the lead in round one to a fellow teammate, sophomore Andrew Harness, Windle completed his finest and most difficult dives in the later rounds, demonstrating his spectacular stamina and strength.
“I pushed through it with Harness,” Windle said after retaining his title in the platform event. “We did what we had to do and had a lot of fun with all the schools. It was a blast.”
Windle’s fourth-round dive, a forward 4 ½ somersault tuck, presented him with his highest degree of difficulty, an intimidating 3.7. However, he didn’t back down and ultimately nailed it, ripping gracefully through the water. The judges agreed, giving him tens across the board, adding up to an outstanding score of 111.00.
The perfect dive, however, seemed to only motivate him more. He went on to finish his last dives of the day with two additional triple-digit scores.
On the 1-meter, Windle set a new Big 12 Championship meet record with a massive 469.85 points. This was his first time winning the event.
“It really does mean the world,” Windle said. “I’ve been working with (head coach Matt) Scoggin a lot trying to get my springboard in the shape it needs to be and have these amazing freshman and underclassmen pushing me.”
And his teammates certainly did push him.
Freshman diver Noah Duperre also had a great showing at the conference championship, finishing second in the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Duperre spent the majority of the first two days of the tournament trailing just behind Windle with scores of 438.70 on 1-meter and 434.50 on 3-meter.
However, even with the talented depth chart of Texas’ diving team, Windle was ultimately the star of the show. In the 3-meter event, which Windle had previously won in 2018 and 2020, he retained his title with a score of 479.85.
The Texas men's swimming and diving team was announced as the Big 12 Conference Champions following the last day of diving. Adding to the team's historic run, this marks 42 straight conference championships as well as 25 straight Big 12 team titles.
The future for Windle is bright as he hopes to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics this upcoming summer.
Before that however, the Texas men’s diving team will prepare for the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships held March 11-13 in Lexington, Kentucky.
