Simard Finishes 17th on One-Meter Board at NCAA Championships

By Jim Fenton

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Bridgewater State University senior Cailey Simard narrowly missed advancing to the consolation round in the 1-meter diving event at the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming & Diving Championships.

The Haverhill, Mass., resident placed 17th in a field of 29 divers with a score of 391.95 Thursday afternoon, missing the final by less than a point.

The top eight from the preliminaries advance to the final round on Thursday night at the Indiana University Indianapolis Natatorium. Placewinners nine to 16 compete in the consolation round.

Simard was one place away from moving on to the consolations, and the final qualifier ahead of her, freshman Morgan Davey (Ballston, N.Y.) of the State University of New York Geneseo, had a score of 392.65 for a difference of only .70.

Simard improved her score on the 1-meter board by 48.60 points from a year ago when she made her national debut.

Making her second straight appearance in the NCAAs, Simard will conclude her sensational career on Saturday by competing in the 3-meter diving event.

The preliminaries start at 12:45 p.m. with the final taking place at roughly 7:58 p.m.

As a junior in 2025, Simard finished 28th in the 1-meter competition with a score of 343.35 and she was 26th on the 3-meter board with 379.80 points.

Simard is a four-time Little East Conference Diver of the Year and owns four BSU records, two each on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.

She qualified for this year's national meet with a score of 436.00 at the Region 3 competition in Connecticut.

The top score of the preliminary round was posted by sophomore Makenna Mincey (Brunswick, Ohio) of Baldwin Wallace University with 438.10 points followed by sophomore Nina Schwab (Piedmont, Calif.) of Carleton College with 437.60 points and Ariana Khan of Emory University with 432.80 points.

Four divers from New England schools moved on to the final round by finishing in the top 16.

Freshman Logan Yee (Charlotte, N.C.) of MIT was fifth with 423.50 points while freshman Brooke Ronan (Louisville, Ky.) of Amherst College was ninth with 417.75 points.

Junior Fiora Beratahani (San Jose, Calif.) of MIT was 11th with 414.70 points and senior Donna Zhang (Winchester, Mass.) of Amherst was 15th with 401.15 points.