Vallée Rebounds with Dominant Outing on Day 2
ATHENS, Ga. – After a promising start to her first trip to NCAA Zone B qualifiers was derailed by a late misstep on Day 1, freshman Mia Vallée rebounded with one of the best performances of her young career Tuesday at the Gabrielsen Natatorium.
Vallée will be returning to the same facility on the University of Georgia campus later this month after finishing with the top score in the 3-meter springboard on Day 2 (692.50), successfully qualifying for the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Head diving coach Randy Ableman said Vallée was almost unrecognizable from her performance at the ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Greensboro, N.C., less than a month ago.
“She really proved something to everybody here and proved something to herself,” Ableman said. “She took a big step forward and shook off what happened yesterday and had a new attitude. She basically was in first place wire-to-wire. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
Ableman said he knew Vallée was in for a special day after watching her in warmups early Tuesday morning.
“She told me she was going to approach it more like practice rather than getting all stressed about being in this competition,” he said. “She had a great warmup, the meet started, she started nailing dives and she got on a roll.”
The Montreal native had the top performance during the morning’s preliminary round and was sharp in the finals, cruising to the top finish as one of seven divers to qualify.
Just missing the final cut was sophomore Millie Haffety, who was among a handful of divers to finish with a score of more than 300 points in the morning round. She finished in 12th (577.70) in the night’s finals. Freshman Jessie Creed finished with 227.90 points in the preliminaries.
“Millie had her best performance of the year,” Ableman said. “She had herself in position after the prelims to qualify and she didn’t quite hold on, but all in all, it was her best performance of the year and that makes any coach feel good.
“She’s super disappointed not to qualify, but she knows in her heart that she has gotten better and we’re going to get back to work and get there next year.”
Additionally, freshman Max Flory – who qualified for the NCAA Men’s Championships in Indianapolis on Monday in the 3-meter springboard – earned a berth in the 1-meter by taking fifth (643.40) Tuesday.
Along with Flory, junior Zach Cooper, redshirt senior David Dinsmore and freshman Brodie Scapens will take part in the men’s platform qualifier Wednesday to cap Miami’s run in Athens.
“I’m looking for a great day,” Ableman said. “There isn’t much room for error. All four guys need to place in the top eight [to qualify], I believe, and anything short of that will be a disappointment. The bar is set pretty high, but they know it. They’re gamers. Hopefully we get off to fast start and we put on a show.”
