Courtesy of Brian Beard

Women’s swim and dive captain Sadie Smith ’25 shined at the NCAA Division III championships last week, clinching a sixth-place finish on the 3m dive, securing All-American status at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. As Smith closes out her final collegiate season, she feels that her hard work these past four years has paid off.

“I was trying to make the most of our season and have fun while doing it. We worked really hard. One of my goals was to give it 110 percent every day, and I know that looks different every day, but it really paid off at nationals,” Smith said.

Smith started the four-day meet with a 17th-place finish in the preliminary round for the 1m dive. Smith quickly bounced back, finishing fifth in the 3m dive preliminary round with a score of 464.40.

“The 1m dive honestly was not my best competition. Everybody there for the first day was having a tough meet. There were a lot of misses, but again, I was so happy with how I performed,” Smith said.

Smith returned the next day for finals in the 3m dive and finished sixth with a score of 461.65.

“I was so happy to even just make it to Nationals. Anything on top of that was just an extra bonus,” Smith said.

Smith is no stranger to success. In her first year with the team, she won the 2022 NESCAC title in the 3m dive.

“I won NESCACs for the 3m dive my first year, and it always comes to mind as one of my favorite moments. I didn’t know that I had won, and when I found out, the first thing I did was run to my teammates, and they just encircled me in huge hugs,” Smith said. “I knew that from that point on, I had picked the best school, the best people, the best everything, and this team was just going to love me and support me no matter what.”

Smith highlighted her growth over the past four years.

“I had a lot of growth this year as a person and as an athlete. I was able to really hone in on my mental skills because, while I love diving, I felt disconnected from diving. I felt lost in my past two years without having a true coach, because I felt like I wasn’t progressing,” Smith said. “This year, I felt like I was back in touch with myself and grew into the diver that I had always aspired to be from my little freshman self.”

While Smith went without a diving coach during her sophomore and junior years, her determination to compete brought her success this year.

“We did not have a diving coach and that made it really tricky for me to get the dives that I wanted and needed as the field was growing,” Smith said. “Once I got a coach this year, though, I was able to get my harder dives back and be ready and better than ever.”

This season, Smith completed the dive she had been working on all season at NCAA: a reverse two-and-a-half somersault. She attributes her success to her new diving coach Doug Hall.

“Doug is fantastic, and I feel like I have to credit him with a lot of my progress this semester and this year because he taught me how to actually use the board, so then I could get these huge dives that I ended up being able to use in my nationals experience,” Smith said.

Smith started in gymnastics when she was three, but quit at the age of ten because of a broken arm. She overcame this setback by trying out diving. After falling in love with the sport, Smith was then selected for a local club national team, and everything took off from there.

“When I hit my first ever 10m dive on the platform, it really solidified that I loved diving. It was a surge of adrenaline and joy, and I just knew that I had to keep going. Now, whenever I hit a dive, it just feels so good. I can’t explain what it feels like. I [am] just overcome with joy and can’t help but smile. I hope I find that again outside of diving,” Smith said.

While diving has been a focal point in Smith’s life, she emphasized the major lessons and takeaways from the sport.

“Diving is an extremely mentally rigorous sport. I’ve learned to just get up and move on when something doesn’t go your way, because in diving, you’ve got two seconds to make a dive perfect,” Smith said.  “Sometimes that doesn’t happen, though. Diving has reminded me to take my breath, be in the moment and move on.”