After an Olympic silver medal, multiple Pac-12 titles, too many All-America nods to count, and countless other accolades, perhaps the one accomplishment that’s evaded UA all-everything diver Delaney Schnell to this point was a national championship.
She got that Saturday, winning the women’s platform dive, putting a shining crown on her monumental Arizona diving career at the NCAA Women’s Swim and Dive Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“I mean, I’ve been diving in college for six years now. And it’s been something that’s just kind of been bugging at me for six years. I’ve been so close every year, and just to end my collegiate diving career with a national title is beyond words,” Schnell told ESPN after her final dive representing the UA.
“Something that my coach always tells me is to dive for the little girl that started in the first place, and I think that’s just kind of the mindset that I wanted to have going into today.”
Schnell led all divers through the prelims Saturday morning and held serve in the championship round later in the day. She held off second place Montserrat Lavenant of LSU and Viviana del Angel of Minnesota in third to win the title.
Schnell had qualified first Friday in the women’s 3-meter event but ended up finishing fourth. She also took second in the 1-meter dive Thursday. North Carolina’s Aranza Vazquez Montano won both those events.
