The week of March 15, Wellesley College, junior Maura Sticco-Ivins became a three-time National champion when she took first place in the three-meter and one-meter dives. Sticco-Ivins scored 504.00 to win the 2017 NCAA Division III three-meter diving National Championship, making her a two time National Champion, as she won the three-meter event in 2015. Two days later, Sticco-Ivins scored 475.40 to win the 2017 NCAA Division III one-meter diving National Championship. Sticco-Ivins becomes the first Wellesley athlete to have three individual National Championships.
“Maura’s win for the Wellesley Diving program is something that really makes a name for our school.” commented Jack Lewis, the Wellesley Diving coach who is in his first year of coaching at the college. Lewis adds, “With Wellesley being so academically driven, athletics somehow fall on the back burner. Maura shows that you can achieve a great education while achieving at the highest level as well. It is great for our program moving forward.”
Sticco-Ivins and Lewis were both awarded with College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America honors. Sticco-Ivins was named the 2017 Women’s Diver of the Year and Lewis was named 2017 Women’s Diving Coach of the Year. As Sticco-Ivins finishes up her junior year a three-time national champion, Lewis said that there is always room for improvement, “since a young age [she] has been taught such great basics that really carry over into the bigger and harder dives. We still have harder dives that we can do or improve dives that we are still doing and knowing this keeps her hungry for more.”
Lewis, with a record-breaking season in his first year of coaching, knows that Wellesley Diving can continue to improve as a group. Lewis comments, “There is only one way to go, I have learned so much from this being my first year and first year at NCAA’s as a coach.”
Lewis’s goal going forward is to just keep improving. “Diving is a sport where you peak at a certain time and I believe I did a great job of that this year, but moving forward I especially want Maura to finish off her senior year on a high note and be happy with her career. As for my other athletes, to keep them wanting to get better and to have fun.”