Princeton University Athletics
Stramandi Earns All-America At NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
March 18, 2001 | Women's Swimming and Diving
March 17, 2001
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - Danielle Stramandi earned All-America honors at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday. The junior placed third in the platform diving finals with a score of 445.15 points, earning 16 of Princeton's 27 points at the competition. The Tigers finished 25th overall on the strength of a pair of divers, as senior Erin Lutz also reached the finals in the one-meter event.
"It's a dream come true for me," says Stramandi, who was making her first appearance in the finals after qualifying for NCAAs last season. "I wanted to make the Top 8 and do the listed dives the way I knew how. That was my biggest accomplishment."
Stramandi, who was in sixth place after the prelims with 148.75 points, climbed to fifth place after two rounds in the finals. She improved her standing dramatically in the fourth round with a dive score of 69.75 to catapult her into third. The dive, an armstand back double with a half-twist, has the highest scoring performance of any competitor in the final round. Kylee Wells, a freshman from Tennessee who finished fifth had the next highest single-dive score at 68.20. "It's my favorite dive," she says, "probably because of my gymnastics background."
Stramandi's total score of 296.40 in the finals was also the best of all eight divers in the competition, including the eventual winner, Erin Sones of Stanford. Sones' five-round total of 292.80 points in the finals was enough to give her the victory on the strength of 170.25 points in the prelims.
Stramandi completed an impressive showing for the Princeton diving program, which had two All-Americas (Stramandi and Lutz) in the same season for the first time under head coach Greg Gunn. Stramandi's third-place finish was also the highest ever for any of the coach's pupils.
"I was really proud of the way they focused," says Gunn. "Danielle handled herself very well. after not reaching the finals last year, she came back and competed at a very high level. It bodes well for the future, and it's really great for the program."
Platform Diving Results