Miami has been represented effectively on the NCAA Ladies’s Swimming & Diving Championships with a number of ’Canes making their marks to this point.
Of all of them, Chiara Pellacani, coming off her Olympic redshirt season, was capable of carry house gold for the Hurricanes. With a rating of 354.65, Pellacani took house first place within the 1-meter springboard. Now an NCAA champion, the junior diver provides one other spectacular medal to her already stacked resume that features an ACC Gold and an Olympic look for Italy.
Pellacani’s weekend began with a robust efficiency within the preliminaries. Her rating of 338.80 was 15 factors larger than the second spot. This set her up for a giant end within the finals, and he or she did simply that.
Along with her fourth try, Pellacani carried out a reverse 2 ½ somersault tuck that helped push her excessive. With a rating of 354.65, she outdid the remainder of the sector by almost 21 factors and claimed gold on the largest stage of the season.
The primary-place end makes her the seventeenth diver in Hurricanes’ historical past with a nationwide championship. That wasn’t the one accomplishment for her, as on the next night time, she took house silver within the 3-meter springboard.
And Pellacani wasn’t alone; her runner-up within the 1-meter is none apart from Miami’s final diving champion, senior Mia Vallée, who took house seventh within the 3-meter to earn All-American honors alongside Pellacani in each occasions. This wasn’t only a momentous assertion for Pellacani – it was an announcement for the work of first-year head diving coach Dario di Fazio.
After the meet, Pellacani mirrored on each the work her coach has carried out this 12 months and on sharing the honors along with her teammate Valle. “Dario is wonderful. That is his first 12 months as a head coach, and he’s doing rather well. Mia is a tremendous diver, too. We at all times have enjoyable working towards collectively. It’s a contest between us [at practice], and doing it right here is much more enjoyable.”
Shifting from the diving board to within the pool, Miami additionally had some spectacular performances for the swimmers who certified. This was primarily by Giulia Varvalho, who led the way in which within the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle to earn two All-American honorable point out spots.
The ladies additionally had some spectacular freshmen with them as Ashly Massey and Simone Moll each took house some good occasions for his or her first NCAA championship appearances.
Whereas that wraps up the ladies’s standouts, the boys may also have an opportunity to shine as senior Max Flory later this week takes to the springboard.