Miami diver Pei Lin to compete at NCAA Championships for third straight year
By Kelsey Smith, student assistant in the athletic communications office
Pei Lin is in familiar territory as she heads to the NCAA Championships for the third time in three years.
She will try to become the first in Miami’s swimming and diving history to win an individual NCAA championship and the first Miamian to do so in three decades.
The last person to do so was track star Karen Bakewell when she won the 800-meter race in 1986.
Prior to Lin’s arrival, Kelsey Vehr owned the best finish in program history, placing seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke at the 2010 NCAA Championships. Vehr was the first women’s swimming First-Team All-American.
Last season, Lin placed second in the three-meter dive (399.40) and third in the one-meter dive (332.20) at NCAAs, earning her First-Team All-America accolades.
The 5-foot-1, 100-pound diver recently qualified for the NCAA Championships in the three-meter dive with a total combined score of 737.15. She was first in the preliminary round with 375.80 points and added on 361.35 more in the finals.
She finished the preliminary round of the one-meter dive in first place after accumulating 319.05 total points. She tacked on 299.35 more points in the finals, but her total score of 618.40 was just 0.50 points shy of first place.
Lin is the three-time MAC Diver of the Year who swept the diving competition in the MAC Championships in February.
The Women’s NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships will be held from March 15-18 at the Indiana University Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis.
Lin will compete in the one-meter diving preliminaries at 12:30 p.m. Thursday and the finals for the top eight divers will start at approximately 7 p.m. You can watch Thursday’s events live online.
She will dive in the three-meter preliminaries at 12:30 p.m. Friday. Finals for the top eight divers will begin at about 7:30 p.m. You can watch Friday’s events live online.
Update: Lin finished second in the three-meter dive and seventh in the one-meter dive at the NCAA Championships.
