Wilke Dives To A Pair Of Top-16 Finishes At NCAA Championship

UW-Oshkosh sophomore Matt Wilke dove to a pair of top-16 finishes at the NCAA Division III Men's Swimming & Diving Championship held Thursday through Saturday (March 20-23) in Greensboro, N.C.

Wilke, who was making his first NCAA Championship appearance, placed 13th in the 3- and 16th in the 1-meter diving categories with scores of 458.30 and 407.30, respectively. Both sections of the diving featured 24 competitors.

Jay Lang of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the 3-meter diving with a score of 552.65. Dylan Glumac-Berberich of UW-Eau Claire finished second with 551.55 points while Kendall Holliman placed third with 547.85, defending champion Heath Ogawa of Lake Forest College (Ill.) fourth with 535.75 and Bennett Fagan of Amherst College (Mass.) fifth with 531.80. 

In the 1-meter diving, Ogawa captured first place with a score of 537.65. Lucas Bumgarner of Emory University (Ga.) finished second with 515.75 point, Connor Pennington of Springfield College (Mass.) third with 501.15, Daniel Valmassei of Trinity University (Texas) fourth with 497.70 and Jacob Burris of Albion College (Mich.) fifth with 480.75.

Wilke, UW-Oshkosh's first participant at the NCAA Championship since 2012, helped the Titans score five points in the team competition.

Denison University (Ohio) totaled 562.5 points to successfully defend its team title. Emory University, which won the 2017 title, finished second with 447.5 points while Kenyon College (Ohio) placed third with 447, Johns Hopkins University (Md.) fourth with 300 and Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) fifth with 221.

Rounding out the top 10 teams were sixth-place MIT with 203 points, seventh-place Williams College (Mass.) with 162, eighth-place University of Chicago (Ill.) with 153, ninth-place Amherst College with 149.5 and 10th-place Tufts University (Mass.) with 147.

Wilke qualified for the NCAA Championship through his performance at the Region 1 Championship held March 1-2 in Crawfordsville, Ind. Wilke placed fifth in both diving events, totaling 440.55 points among 21 competitors in the 1-meter category and 457.80 points among 19 participants in the 3-meter section.

Competing at the WIAC Championship held Feb. 14-16 in Brown Deer, Wilke finished second in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events with scores of 495.60 and 515.90, respectively.

NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships Host Website

NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships Digital Program

Photo by Paul Wilke