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Giordano Win in 3m Diving Marks Pittsburgh’s First NCAA Title

Pittsburgh junior Dominic Giordano closed out the individual events on Friday night with a narrow 2.5-point victory in 3-meter diving, becoming the Panther swimmer or diver ever to earn an NCAA crown.

Giordano was a distant third behind Herrera (runner-up last night) and UNC All-American Jack Nyquist at ACC’s last month, and was just fifth out of the preliminary round yesterday afternoon, but ratcheted it up in finals to win the title.  After leading off with three solid dives, Giordano absolutely nailed his fourth entry: a reverse 1 1/2 somersault, 3 1/2 twist in the free position that earned a score of 96.25 (including two 9.5’s and a perfect 10 from the judges), easily the highest across all competitors in the finals, and one of only two dives that was above 86 total points.  The same round, Briadam Herrera of Miami (FL)–arguably the favorite in the field–botched his forward 3 1/2 somersault, scoring just 55.80 points.  From there, Herrera quickly closed the gap over the final two rounds, but a pair of 70+ point dives sealed the narrow victory for Giordano.

Here’s Giordano’s final dive scores, courtesy of DiveMeets.com:

Dive Number Height Description Net
Score
DD Score Round
Place
1 107B 3M Forward 3 1/2 Somersault Pike 25.50 3.10 79.05 3
2 205B 3M Back 2 1/2 Somersault Pike 24.00 3.00 72.00 5
3 305B 3M Reverse 2 1/2 Somersault Pike 22.00 3.00 66.00 4
4 5337D 3M Reverse 1 1/2 Somersault 3 1/2 Twist Free 27.50 3.50 96.25 1
5 405B 3M Inward 2 1/2 Somersault Pike 23.50 3.00 70.50 4
6 5154B 3M Forward 2 1/2 Somersault 2 Twist Pike 22.50 3.40 76.50 6

Giordano is the also the first Pitt swimmer or diver to earn All-American status since 2008–when diver Alex Volovetski was awarded honors off the 1-meter board–and the first off the 3-meter board since Jeremy Stultz in 2007.  Individually, it’s Giordano’s second All-American honor on the weekend, following his eighth place efforts off the 1-meter board on Thursday.

There’s a chance for a second title today from Giordano off the 10-meter platform; he took home the 2015 ACC title (which doubled as Pitt’s first ever ACC diving title) in the event.

For full event results from DiveMeets, click here

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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