While the Irish swimmers were training this week at home, their diving teammates traveled to Atlanta to compete in the ACC diving championships.
After a strong last meet of the regular season against Cleveland State that saw sophomore Joe Coumos earn the ACC diver of the week for his school record-breaking performance in the 3-meter event, the Irish sent four divers to Atlanta. Seniors Nick Nemetz and Michael Kreft and sophomore James Lichtenstein joined Coumos in Georgia. In the 1-meter event Wednesday, the Irish came close, but ultimately missed out on advancing to the final round of the competition. Lichtenstein and Coumos finished 10th (314.40) and 11th (313.90), respectively but missed the cut as only the top eight divers made it through to the final stage. Nemetz finished 17th with a score of 289.75, while Kreft nabbed 21st (279.40).
After the 1-meter competition, the Irish had a day to rest and cheer on the women’s team, which finished fifth. However, they were back in action Friday for the 3-meter event. This time, Coumos had the best performance for the Irish, and he scored a 331.20 to finish 15th. While they did not qualify for the finals in this event, all four Irish divers grabbed valuable points for the team. Coumos nabbed 12, Kreft nabbed nine with a 17th-place finish, Nemetz snatched three (22nd) and Lichtenstein added one (24th), giving the swimmers a platform to launch from heading into the remainder of the championships starting Wednesday.
In the final competition of the meet, the platform, the Irish again scored valuable points. Lichtenstein, Coumos and Nemetz finished back-to-back-to-back to grab 19th, 20th and 21st while Kreft was slightly behind them at 24th.
The swimmers will close out the ACC diving championships campaign for Notre Dame starting Wednesday.
