Instead of hitting up the ski slopes or tanning at the beach over spring break, Ainsley Kashatus ‘29 was doing something different — competing at the NCAA Division III swimming and diving national championships at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
The last time a woman diver represented Macalester at NCAA Division III nationals, then-senior Renee Jordan ’14 won the competition on the one-meter springboard.
This year, Kashatus put in an inspired performance at the championships, claiming the top 20 on both the one-meter and three-meter boards.
When national-champion diver Renee Jordan was a first year, she placed 20th on the three-meter springboard and 12th on the one-meter.
First-year star Kashatus replicated almost to a tee Jordan’s performance, where her diving placed 20th on the three-meter and 13th on the one-meter diving board, up from her 16th-place preliminary placement.
Wilson Josephson, assistant coach of the swim and dive team, noted how Kashatus’ qualification to nationals sets a precedent for the rest of the program. “We’ve had Scots competing at [nationals] in three of the last four years; thanks to [Kashatus] and the athletes who came before her, it’s now ‘normal’ that the Scots show up on the national stage, instead of an occasional surprise.”
In the one-meter competition on March 19, Kashatus placed 20th out of 29 competitors, with a score of 385.45.
Two days later, she followed up that event with a standout performance on the three-meter. During preliminaries, her score of 414.85 placed her 16th and gave her the final spot in the consolation final.
In the consolation final, the divers redid their last six (optional) dives while keeping the scores of their first five (voluntary) dives. Luckily, Kashatus’ voluntary score of 179.50 was second among the bunch, so she had the second-highest score to build off of.
During the final round, Kashatus put down a strong performance, moving up three spots to score 427.75 and place 13th. She was honored as an All-American Honorable Mention.
“Overall, I am pretty happy with how it went,” Kashatus said. “Three-meter is definitely my better event, so I was happy to get All-American on that.”
Diving coach Spencer Brady hopes to support Kashatus into her future competitions. “My first season with Ainsley was a lot of learning for both of us … [but] we know what we need to do to place even higher next season.”
“The highlight of my season was making it to nationals,” said Kashatus. “Competing at nationals was kind of the goal from day one,” she said.
Josephson hopes that an All American performance will attract future talent. “Seeing our divers succeed has been helpful in getting [recruits] to picture themselves at Mac.”
Overall, it was a fantastic experience for the first-year, who will be building on this performance for years to come. If the past is prologue, the Renee Jordan performance means Kashatus should have her eyes set on the national title in due course.
