MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.?Senior Taryn Ignacio ended her brilliant career as a Kentucky Wildcat with a thrilling third-place finish in the platform diving event to help lead the Blue and White to a school-best 12th-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Championships.
Ignacio started off the night by sticking her first dive that she struggled with in the preliminary round to earn a 60.90 score. She ended round one in sixth place, but immediately fired back and put herself atop the leaderboard with her second round dive score of 76.50 the best of her five. She stayed out in front with a 75.40 score on her third dive, her favorite dive of the bunch. In the fourth round, she barely missed and scored a 52.80 and then watched Texas? Jessica Livingston score an almost perfect dive when she took the lead with a 91.20 score. The Richmond, Ky., native ended her outstanding career in stylish fashion scoring a 67.20 score on her fifth and final dive which ended her collegiate career. Her total score of 332.80 was just a shade of a point off of her career-high which she set last season when she won the NCAA crown.
?I?m happy with the result,? said Ignacio. ?I missed one dive, but I did everything else to the best of my ability. I achieved my goal of becoming a national champion last year and had my time in the spotlight. My goal was to win, but if I couldn?t I wanted to medal and I did that. I?m happy with what I?ve done throughout my career.?
Ignacio ended her career as Kentucky?s all-time leader with five SEC Championships. She was second dive in SEC history to three-peat on platform, and claimed SEC Diver of the Year for three consecutive seasons. She will forever be remembered as Kentucky?s first ever National Champion.
Junior Kari Retrum placed 11th overall in the platform event scoring 274.40 points. This marks the second event Retrum earned All-America honorable mention status in her first NCAA Championships. After edging her way into the consolation bracket by taking the 15th seed, Retrum made quick work to place her name among the leaders. On Thursday she took 12th on the one-meter board to add to her outstanding meet.
Kentucky?s 400-free relay team became the first team in school history to place in the top-16 when they tapped in 15th in tonight?s finals with a time of 3:20.61. The quartet of Heather Bradford who notched her career-best time of 49.82 with the opening split was joined by Kristina Sledge, Lauren Willis and Jenny Bradford.
The 2007 NCAA Championships concludes the Wildcats? phenomenal season that saw many firsts in school annals. In addition to the 400-free relay team being the first in school history to appear in the scoring rounds of the NCAAs, the 200-freestyle relay team became the first team in school history to place in the top-eight in the country in a relay. Jenny Bradford, Heather Bradford, Willis and Nikia Deveaux also won the first-ever SEC Championship in a relay. In addition to Ignacio becoming the University?s all-time leader with five SEC Championships, Jenny Bradford now leads UK with 11 All-America distinctions. For the third season in a row the Lady Cats appeared in the NCAA Championships, and took fourth in the SEC Championships for the fourth consecutive season.
