🏊♀️ Lai Wins Three-Meter Event, Kansas Finishes Seventh at 2024 Big 12 Championships
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Freshman diver Shiyun Lai earned first-place honors in the three-meter dive as the Kansas swimming and diving team placed seventh in the 2024 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships with 647.50 points, which concluded on Saturday at the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park.
Lai dove for an impressive 406.20 points to become just the third diver and seventh Jayhawk to win an individual championship in the conference championship. Lai’s total of 406.25 is the second-most points tallied in the three-meter dive in school history, just behind Vicky Xu’s 420.60 during the 2018-19 season.
Lai was named the Big 12 Women’s Newcomer Diver of the Meet, becoming just the fourth Jayhawk in program history to win a “Big 12 of the Meet” award.
Lai and Gabriela San Juan Carmona were the lone Jayhawks to make a championship final. Carmona wrapped up a solid week on the board, finishing sixth in the three-meter final and adding to Kansas’ point total.
The consolation events consisted of Caroline Blake and Keyla Brown, who both competed in the 100-yard freestyle. Ellie Howe, Lezli Sisung, Claudia Dougan, Ryan Johnston, Emma Walker, Molly Robinson and Lize Van Leeuwen all competed in the bonus final of their respected events.
In the last event of the night, the relay team of Blake, Brown, Dougan and Ellie Wehrmann raced a time of 3:21.99 in the women’s 400-yard freestyle, finishing fourth and earning Kansas 52 points.
FINAL STANDINGS
1 – Texas – 2,092
2 – Houston – 1,266. 50
3 – TCU – 1,215. 50
4 – Cincinnati – 918. 50
5 – BYU – 771. 50
6 – West Virginia – 699
7 – Kansas – 647. 50
8 – Iowa State – 529
UP NEXT
While this was the last meet for the swimming team, Lai, Carmona, Van Leeuwen and Lauren Gryboski will compete in the NCAA Zone Diving Championships in Houston, Texas on March 11-13.
