Lemke Completes Sophomore Season at NCAA Championships

Friday, March 16

Columbus, Ohio

10:00 AM / 6:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Walt Middleton Photography 2018

March 16, 2018 | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A very special 2017-18 season has come to a close for sophomore Talisa Lemke and the Bowling Green State University swimming and diving team. On Friday (March 16), Lemke competed in the three-meter diving preliminary round at the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. She accumulated 293.50 points to place 30th out of 48 divers and finished 21.85 points away from a spot in the finals. This was Lemke's first career appearance at an NCAA Championship event, and she was BGSU's first diver at the national meet since 1988.

Photo Gallery (Walt Middleton / BGSU Athletic Communications)
Complete Diving Results
NCAA Championships Results

"Talisa did an amazing job this season, did some really special things along the way, and ended the season at the biggest meet you can attend at this level. For Talisa to be able to gain this experience as a sophomore, it will be invaluable for next season to help her know what to expect and what the transition is like from conference to Zones and then hopefully to Austin next year for NCAAs," said BGSU swimming and diving head coach Matt Ense. "Talisa and Coach (Tricia) Grant should be very proud of what they were able to do in their first year together. The future looks bright for us with a great core group of divers coming back and a strong recruiting class joining the program in the fall. I cannot thank the administration and athletic department enough for making the decision to bring diving back to the program five years ago."

Lemke began the session with three excellent dives. Her first, a back 1.5 somersault 1.5 twist free, earned 50.40 points and was her first 50-pointer of the meet. She followed that with an inward 2.5 somersault tuck that received 52.65 points. Her third dive, which had a 2.9 degree of difficulty, was her highest-scoring of the meet. Judges gave Lemke 53.65 points, and halfway through the preliminary round, she stood in the first alternate position for finals (17th place) with 156.70 points.

In the final half of the preliminaries, two of Lemke's three dives were the most difficult in her repertoire. She scored a 49.50 on the first, and that followed a 46.80 from her fourth attempt. However, on her final dive, she chose a reverse 2.5 somersault pike and tallied her lowest score of the day (40.50). Lemke's meet total (293.50) trailed 16th-place Molly Carlson of Florida State (315.35) by 21.85 points. Two other MAC divers, senior Pei Lin from Miami and Eastern Michigan's Alexandra Shereda, also competed. Lin finished fifth overall, while Shereda placed 38th (279.45). Arkansas freshman Brooke Schultz won the NCAA Championship (399.45).