Pair of Freshmen Beat NCAA Finalists at Texas Diving Invite

Texas Diving Invite

• November 15-17
• Austin, Texas
• Diving
• Results

Texas hosted their annual Diving Invite last week, and there are storylines developing that could have significant impacts on this year’s NCAA Championships.

Men’s Platform Results

The men’s platform event at the meet was full of new faces on the NCAA scene, starting with the freshman who took first and second. Texas A&M Freshman and World Junior Champion Jaxon Bowshire took the event with a score of 383.80, but he was followed closely behind by Stanford Freshman and US Olympic Trials Finalist Misha Andriyuk at 380.75. Texas A&M had one diver in the consolation final at NCAAs, and Stanford had none.

There were former NCAA scorers in the event as well. 3rd went to fellow TAMU diver Leonardo Garcia who placed 6th at NCAAs in 2023 for Florida. Garcia did not compete last year and transferred to Texas A&M for his 5th year. Tanner Braunton, of Texas, was 4th and he placed 16th last year, and Rhett Hensley, the A&M diver from last year, placed 6th at the invite and 13th at NCAAs. In another twist, Cameron Cash from Pitt placed 13th at the meet after getting 9th at NCAAs.

Men’s 1-Meter Results

Men’s 3-meter Results

The rest of the men’s meet was rather predictable. Stanford senior Jack Ryan won both springboard events, and he had the highest NCAA placement in both events. Texas Freshman Luke Forester placed 5th and 6th in both, and Tanner Braunton was 33rd at Nationals and placed 2nd individually ahead of 3 point scorers last year which could be good for the Texas men who are trying to get back in the top three at this year’s championships.

Women’s Platform

The women’s platform event was relatively unsurprising, with the 4th place finisher from NCAAs, Else Praasterink of Texas A&M, winning the event. There were two freshmen in the top 4, Stanford’s Anna Lemkin was runner-up, and Texas’ Taylor Fox placed 4th. Texas lost their only platform finalist and Stanford didn’t have anyone in the final, so these results bode well for them. Praasterink was one of two NCAA scorers in the event. The second was Utah’s Holly Waxman who placed 8th at the invite, and 14th at NCAAs.

Women’s 3-meter

The women’s meet proceeded relatively as expected in the 3-meter, with the exception of last year’s NCAA 3rd place finisher for Texas, Hailey Hernandez, placing 4th. Ahead of her were the NCAA 5th place finisher from Miami, Mia Vallee in 1st, and two non-finalists, Bayleigh Cranford of Texas who got 2nd, and UNT’s Kamryn Wong in 3rd. Hernandez placed 1st at last year’s Invite, and was a significant point scorer for Texas at NCAAs.

Women’s 1-Meter

The other surprising result on the women’s side came from TCU diver Anna Kwong’s 1st place finish on the 1-meter. Kwong beat 2nd place Haily Hernandez by just 3.1 points. This is a significant improvement for Kwong, who didn’t make either final at NCAAs placing 20th. She also beat last season’s 2nd and 3rd place finishers in Hernandez and Vallee.