CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Over the winter break, the Fighting Illini divers headed south for their annual training trip. Stops during the trip included the University of Tennessee and the University of Georgia. While in Athens, Georgia, three Illini divers got into the action including Olivia Kassouni, Jessica Clifford and Madeline Kuhn.
Illinois diving coach Chris Waters shared that the divers put in a lot of training on the boards while in Tennessee and made a number of changes to their dives. Additionally, Waters added, “The folks at Tennessee made us feel right at home in Knoxville and the divers enjoyed some great training sessions over the week. We can’t thank them enough for their hospitality.”
Once in Georgia, the Illini faced up with some of the country’s top collegiate divers including athletes from Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Drexel, Georgia, Iowa State, LSU, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina State, SMU and Tennessee. The meet followed a championship-style format that Coach Waters believes will benefit the divers at the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Regional action.
On the first day of the event, the Illini competed in the one-meter dive. In the preliminaries, Kassouni led the Orange and Blue with 221.70 points, good for a 30th place finish. In 31st was Clifford who notched a total reading of 218.40. Kuhn finished in 46th, earning a score of 193.20.
Day two saw the Fighting Illini competing in the three-meter dive competition. Clifford led Illinois on the day, putting up a score of 245.65 to finish 20th in the field. Not far behind in 23rd, Kassouni put up a reading of 242.45. Kuhn finished in 45th with a score of 190.00.
The final day of action saw Kuhn competing in the platform dive. The Illini freshman ranked 30th with a score of 163.80. Two of the Bloomington, Illinois, native’s five dives in the competition were new as of the training trip.
“This was a tough, but fun, competition with a long list of strong divers,” shared Waters. “Unfortunately, we left a few too many points on the table to advance to finals. Lessons were learned though, and we should be in much better shape as we enter the championship portion of our schedule.”
Reflecting on the training trip as a whole, Waters shared, “The trip itself has allowed the girls to bond a bit more and lay some good groundwork on the boards and platform. The quality and quantity of training we’ve been able to get under our belts has been invaluable!”
Swimming news courtesy of Illinois Swimming & Diving.
