March 11, 2016

By Lizzie Mikes

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – One night after qualifying for the NCAA Championship in women’s 1-meter diving, senior Emma Gaboury of the University of Notre Dame women’s diving team also punched her ticket to compete in women’s 3-meter diving at the title meet. Joining her in 3-meter is talented sophomore Annie Crea, who also finished in an automatic qualifying placement. The two will travel to Atlanta, Ga. alongside senior Lindsey Streepey, who earned a chance to compete in 1-meter with Gaboury. It is the first career NCAA Championship meet for all three.

In the prelims, Gaboury earned the highest finish for the Irish women, standing eighth with 300.55 points. Crea finished 17th (280.20), and both advanced to the finals. Gaboury improved to fourth place (621.00) while Crea put on the performance of a lifetime and finished sixth, with 594.60 points. The top seven finishers earned an automatic trip to NCAAs.

“The past two days have been wonderful,” Gaboury exclaimed. “Zones has always been one of my favorite meets of the season; I get to see friends from other teams and the competition is tough, which is a great challenge. I knew going into Zones that I would have to fight for a spot to NCAAs, and no one was just going to hand it to me. So I just treated this meet like it was the last one of my diving career and focused on enjoying the process instead of worrying about what I had to gain. I always perform better when I take meets one dive at a time and forget about the end goal, and it worked for me this weekend. I am extremely excited for NCAAs, I can’t imagine a better way to end my diving career and end my time representing Notre Dame, especially since I get to do it with my teammates.”

“I honestly had no idea that I was close to making it to NCAAs,” Crea commented. “I went into finals in 16th place, so I just went in with the goal of having a good personal score. I had a very consistent meet and I was very happy with that. I had no idea I had made it until my teammates Emma [Gaboury] and Lindsey [Streepey] came up and started hugging me! It’s all so surreal, I didn’t think I had a chance – especially since I barely made the zone cut last year. I think that this meet definitely shows how much that I have grown as a diver. At this point, I’m going into NCAAs for experience; I know how rigorous the competition is, and hopefully I can learn from my competitors.”

Streepey and freshman Deidre Worth also dove on Friday, but did not advance to the evening finals competition. Worth came in 23rd (264.35) while Streepey took 32nd (243.05).

In men’s diving, junior James Lichtenstein was the only competitor for the Irish, finishing 19th in 3-meter (283.60). Both men’s and women’s platform diving will be contested Saturday, concluding the NCAA Zone C meet. Full results to be posted on und.com.

— ND —

Lizzie Mikes serves as Media Services Coordinator at the University of Notre Dame. A 2013 graduate of Johnson & Wales University, she oversees credential management and is the athletic communications director for Fighting Irish men’s and women’s swimming and diving and track and field. She has assisted with numerous NCAA postseason events hosted by Notre Dame, and is heavily involved in the day-to-day tasks of the athletic communications office.