Sam Ankley of the Kalamazoo College men's swimming & diving team was selected as the MIAA Men's Diver of the Week on Monday (Feb. 20). This is the 10th time in his four-year career Ankley has earned diver of the week honors, including five this season.
The men's swimming & diving team traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., to compete in the MIAA Championships that Calvin hosted. The Hornets came away with a fourth-place finish at the championships, totaling 477 points and 16 top-eight finishes.
On the event's second day, Ankley won the 3-meter dive convincingly, collecting 496.55 points. This was a career-best by nearly 10 points and was about 30 points ahead of the second-place finisher. Then, closing out the championships, Ankley came away with a second-place finish in the 1-meter event. The 489.30 points were 28 points better than his previous career best, as both events were 11-dive contests. Ankley finished the championships as the MIAA Most Valuable Diver for the second time in his career after totaling the most points among the male divers.
Ankley also set personal bests in six-dive events this season, scoring 300.05 in the 1-meter and 284.4 in the 3-meter. Ankley has an incredible resume as a Hornet. He was an All-MIAA performer in his first season after collecting five MIAA Diver of the Week honors and finishing third in the 3-meter at the MIAA Championships. Then, Ankley turned it up the following season as he finished second in the 1-meter and 3-meter events at the MIAA Championships, made the All-MIAA team, was the MIAA Co-Most Valuable Diver, and was a CSCAA All-American in the 1-meter and 3-meter.
Ankley and the rest of the Hornet divers will next compete at the NCAA DIII Central Diving Regionals at Chicago on Feb. 24-25.