Herrera Rebounds to Earn Finals Berth in 3-Meter
AUSTIN, Texas — University of Miami redshirt senior Briadam Herrera overcame a setback in the middle stages of the 3-meter preliminary round to earn a berth in the finals of the event at the 2019 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships Friday afternoon.
Herrera’s third dive – a reverse 3 1/2 somersault tuck – scored less than 40 points and saw him take a plunge in the standings after two strong dives to open preliminaries.
“That’s the way diving goes. Even the great divers miss one along the way. It’s a matter of being able to reset and come back from that,” head coach Randy Ableman said. “I thought he was a warrior today.”
One day after finishing in sixth in the 1-meter to earn the sixth All-America recognition, Herrera staged an epic comeback to finish the preliminaries in fourth place with 384.00 points at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center.
“He was in first place and dropped way down, and it would have been easy to fold up his tent,” Ableman said about Herrera’s third dive. “He was determined to fight back. On his second-to-last dive – the hardest you can do on 3-meter – I gave him the chance to go back to his old dive, a front 3 1/2, which is much safer, thinking that might be the way to get him into the final.”
Herrera declined the option, sticking to the plan of a forward 4 1/2 somersault tuck that carried a 3.8 difficulty. The Havana, Cuba native nailed the dive to soar back into the top-eight.
“I said, ‘I love it.’ He really showed me something there,” Ableman said. “He didn’t take the easy way out. He went with a new dive, this hard dive, and it was as good as he has ever done it.”
Herrera, who clinched the seventh All-America honor of his career, will compete against a loaded finals field that includes 1-meter NCAA national champion Colin Zeng and Indiana standout Andrew Capobianco.
For Ableman, however, Herrera’s comeback in the 3-meter preliminaries set the stage for what he hopes is a standout night for his veteran springboard specialist.
“It says a lot about his character. The guy is a warrior. He may not always have the best form or do things quite as pretty as some guys, but when the chips are down, he’s my guy,” Ableman said. “Hopefully we’ll see that tonight.”
3-meter finals are set to begin at roughly 8:20 p.m. ET from the University of Texas campus.
