GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Bridgewater State University junior diver Cailey Simard (Haverhill, Mass.) made her NCAA championships debut on Thursday afternoon at the 2025 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Simard, who is the first member of the BSU women's swimming & diving program to compete at the national championship meet, finished 28th on the one-meter board with a preliminary and 11-dive score of 343.35 points.

Simard's highest-scoring dive today was a back 1 somersault 2 1/2 twist free (2.7 DD) which she earned 44.55 points on her 11th and final dive. A forward 1 1/2 somersault 1 twist free (2.2 DD) that Simard attempted for her second dive scored a 37.40. She also recorded 36.40 points on her seventh dive (forward 2 ½ somersault pike, 2.6 DD), 34.80 points on her tenth dive (inward 1 1/2 somersault pike, 2.4 DD) and 34.50 points on her eighth (back 1 1/2 somersault pike, 2.3 DD).

Kailee Payne of Ithaca College placed first in the three-meter preliminaries with a score of 466.30 points. She was followed by Abigail Wilkov of Case Western Reserve University (457.60 pts.), MIT's Fiora Beratahani (425.40 pts.) Nina Schwab of Carleton College (422.70 pts.), NYU's Issara Schmidt (419.35 pts.), Ariana Khan of Emory University (418.95 pts.), the University of Chicago's Sumiye Allen (410.50 pts.) and Sydney Bluestein of Amherst College (409.20 pts.). The top eight performers advanced to Thursday evening's finals.

Simard will compete on the three-meter board at the national championship meet on Saturday with preliminary events getting underway at 10:00 AM with finals at 6:00 PM.