Bounds, Rinaldi Head to NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
March 15, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami divers Melanie Rinaldi and Heather Bounds are set to compete in the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships slated to begin Thursday, March 16 and run through Saturday, March 18 at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium. Preliminaries will begin each day at 11:00 a.m. followed by finals in the evening beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Rinaldi and Bounds were two out of nine divers to qualify for the NCAA Championships at the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships last weekend.
Bounds, a junior out of Austin, Texas, automatically qualified when she won the 10-meter platform with a score of 540.25 at the Zone B Championships. Bounds also won the event at the ACC Championships in February.
Rinaldi, a senior out of Montreal, Canada, was an automatic qualifier when she finished second on the 3-meter springboard with a score of 644.20 at the Zone B Championships. Rinaldi won silver in the event and took gold on the 1-meter at the ACC Championships.
This marks Bounds’ third trip to the NCAA Championships and Rinaldi’s first–she qualified her freshman season (2001-02) but did not compete. Last season, Bounds finished 20th on both the 3-meter (453.40) and the 10-meter platform (358.15).
Though the Hurricanes have a rich history in the NCAA Championships, 26 individual champions, only two female divers have won individual titles. Miami’s Wendy Williams garnered a title in 1989 on the platform while Jenny Keim won the 3-meter in 1999 and the platform in 2000.
Miami’s lone male diver, junior Derek Starks, will compete in the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship March 23-25 that will be held in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
Live scoring throughout the NCAA Championships can be found HERE. Updates will take place at the end of each even during both the prelims and finals. Full meet recaps and results following each day’s events can also be found on Hurricanesports.com.
