Texas men’s, women’s divers make waves at Texas Diving Invitational
November 22, 2021
After a thrilling performance against Virginia on the road, the Texas men’s and women’s dive teams returned to their home pool this Thursday through Saturday to compete in the Texas Diving Invitational.
On Thursday, the Longhorn women took two top three finishes in the 3-meter event. Freshman Hailey Hernandez came just three points short of first place and placed second with 386.65 points, while sophomore Bridget O’Neil finished next in the third position with a score of 372.20.
O’Neil went on to compete again Friday in the 1-meter diving event and finished first in a competitive group. The Texan diver just narrowly beat out Arizona diver Delaney Schnell, winning the event by .75 points with her score of 327.50.
On the final day of competition, Texas took home the final prize as Paola Pineda captivated everyone’s attention from the platform. The senior won her third straight platform title at the UT Diving Invitational with an exciting performance, totaling 315.25 points to take first place.
For the men’s team, graduate student Jordan Windle took first place in the 1-meter prelims on Thursday with a score of 398.60. Sophomore Noah Duperre ended prelims in fourth with a score of 366.25, joining Windle in the 1-meter finals. Windle claimed third place in finals with a score of 393.45, just missing the top two spots taken by LSU and Texas A&M. Unfortunately, Duperre fell to seventh place with a score of 354.15.
To begin Friday’s event, Windle ended in third place after the 3-meter prelims with a score of 392.90. The Longhorn shifted into first place for finals and tied with Texas A&M swimmer Kurtis Matthews, both scoring 463.05.
And for the finale, Texas took home another first-place win thanks to Windle and his 402.35 score in the platform event. Windle was the only diver to break 400 points in finals and brought reigning success to the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center once again. Duperre secured second place just behind his teammate with a score of 381.25.
Both the men’s and women’s diving teams will join the swim teams and travel to Minneapolis on Dec. 1-4 to compete in the Minnesota Invitational.