University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Big East Championships Preview: Women's Diving
2/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Big East Championships Preview: Women's Diving
2/20/2003
PITTSBURGH ? After a two-week training period, the Big East Conference Swimming and Diving Championships will begin today at the Long Island Aquatic Center in Long Island, N.Y.
This is the final preview article and will take a look at the women's diving events.
Women's Diving
It has been 19 years since a women's diver that wasn't from Miami or Pittsburgh won a diving competition at the Big East Champions.
The Hurricanes have had the past six one-meter champions and the last seven champs on the three-meter board. Before that, the Panthers won 10 of the previous 12 one-meter competitionsnine of the previous 12 three-meter competitions.
This year, Georgetown's Juliana Bonilla has the top score on the one-meter board, but Miami's Katie Beth Bryant is considered the favorite. Bryant won the one-meter competition in 2001 and the three-meter at last year's meet. Other top competitors on the one-meter board include Notre Dame's Meghan Perry-Eaton, Miami's Emily Spychala and Melanie Rinaldi, Connecticut's Melissa Kull and Alisha Lee, Villanova's Julie Rhines and PIttsburgh's Colleen Kristobak (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park).
Kristobak, a freshman, has been the Panthers' top diver all season and is currently ranked ninth on the one-meter board and seventh in the three-meter competition.
The Huskies' Kull leads the conference with a score of 446.3 heading into the meet on the three-meter board, but other favorites include Syarcuse's Erin Cofeill, Virginia Tech's Robin Wood and Claire Jakabcin, Bonilla, Lee, and Kristobak.
The other Panthers at the Big East meet will be freshmen Erin Leisey (Reading, Pa./Reading), Jessica Adams (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) and Chelsey Millstone (Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School).
