LARAMIE, Wyo. (March 16, 2021) – Sophomore Melissa Mirafuentes will compete this week at the 2021 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Greensboro, N.C. The event is set to begin on today and runs through Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. She will begin the competition tomorrow in the 1-meter with preliminaries slated for 10:30 a.m. MT with the finals scheduled to start at 4 p.m. North Carolina State and the Greensboro Sports Foundation will serve as hosts.
 
Mirafuentes qualified for all three boards, 1-meter, 3-meter and platform out of the NCAA Zone "E" Championships last week in Flagstaff. She and fellow teammate Karla Contreras each earned spots to last year's Championships but weren't able to go due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
At the Zone meet, Mirafuentes was impressive and punched her ticket on the first day of the competition with an eighth place finish in the 1-meter board with a score of 531.55. She followed that up a fourth place spot in the 3-meter. She recorded a second place score of 309.65 in the prelims and then combined for a score of 606.15.  In the platform, Mirafuentes scored a season-best 299.50 for a spot in the finals. With a five dive score of 293.80, she remained in second with a score of 593.30. She qualified for the same event a season ago.  
 
"It was an adventure in itself getting to the meet with not being able to fly out of Denver and ended up having to drive to Salt Lake for a flight," head diving coach Ted Everett said.  "We are undaunted even though we won't get as much practice time as we would have liked. This meet is the culmination of a very difficult season with all the starts and stops due to COVID.  There were many times where we weren't even sure if there was going to be a season.  So to make it to the NCAA Championships is a tremendous accomplishment."
 
Mirafuentes is coming off another stellar performance at the 2021 MW Championship. She would defend her championship in the platform event with a posted a total of 263.80 in the preliminaries followed by a score280.50 in the finals. For her efforts, she was named the MW Championship Diver of the Meet for the second straight year. In the 1-meter, she turned in a preliminary score of 292.10 which was second and followed that up with a six dive total of 282.95 in the finals. Mirafuentes followed that up with a score of 319.10 and a season-best total of 330.15 in the finals for a second place finish. She was also named MW Diver of the three times this season. She is the current school record holder in both the 3-meter and platform with scores of 378.00 and 348.80, respectively, while being ranked four in the 1-meter with a mark of 314.55.
 
"With that said, Melissa, has some momentum going into this meet.  She continued her trend of hitting season high scores last week at the zone meet, but now she is going up against the best of the best.  I'm excited to see what she can do.  This is what we have prepared for.  I hope that Melissa just has fun and enjoys the moment of what has been a crazy season."
 
ESPN3 will provide digital cover for the women's championship for the morning prelims and evening finals sessions, Wednesday-Saturday. The official website is www.ncaa.com/championships/swimming-women/d1 or can be followed on www.divemeets.com.