Junior Jennifer Easton made the most of her first nationals trip, taking home a third-place trophy in the 1-meter dive and All-American honors Friday, March 25, at the NCAA swimming and diving championships in Knoxville, Tenn.

Easton, who also placed 17th out of 22 in the 3-meter dive, scored a 438.30 in the 1-meter dive to edge Baldwin Wallace sophomore Julie Pinter’s 433.15.

“It was really amazing,” Easton said. “I’ve put in such hard work since October and to be able to show how well I could do in a national setting was really awesome.”

Sitting in fourth place heading into Friday night’s final, Easton said she was “not all that nervous” for the final showdown.

“I had already exceeded my expectations,” Easton said. “I was just going to go in and try and do as well as I did in the afternoon, and I was able to do that.”

Pinter, who finished in fourth, had the second-best dive in the preliminaries, but Easton improved her preliminary dive from a 405.20 to a 438.30 in the finals to beat Pinter and earn St. Thomas 16 team points.

“I really had no expectations of how I would place,” Easton said. “I just was grateful to be there and just wanted to do my best.”

Senior Becca Ney and sophomore Sam Rauchwarter also finished at nationals Saturday, with Rauchwarter placing 39th in the 100 free with a 46.85 while Ney placed 42nd in the 100 free with a 52.62. Both Ney and Rauchwarter competed in the 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free but did not qualify for the finals in any event.

It was Ney’s third consecutive appearance at nationals for the Tommies and her last event as a collegiate swimmer.

Ryan Shaver can be reached at shav7005@stthomas.edu.