A University of Iowa diver will get a chance to make the U.S. Olympic squad next year. Hawkeye senior Diedre Freeman earned All American honors at the NCAA swimming and diving championships earlier this month in Austin, Texas. Freeman will compete in the synchronized diving event at the trails with her Iowa teammate Veronica Rydze a year and half from now.
Freeman says she can’t believe she was one of the select few to be invited to the trials. She also expects to qualify in the three meter diving, an event she finished second in at the Big Ten championships. She also finished third in the one meter diving. Freeman says she was the underdog going into both finals as she was 8th in one and 7th in the other and was not nervous and “had the meet of my life twice.”
Freeman is in good company after breaking Iowa records in both events. She says both records were set by Olympic qualifiers, and she says she didn’t realize she was up to that level yet.
The Grinnell native did not even start diving until her freshman year in high school. She says the swim coaches at Grinnell knew a lot about swimming, but not a lot about diving, and she had to break a lot of bad habits when she got to college.
With her collegiate career complete Freeman will turn her attention to the World Cup trials in May.
By John Martenson, KGRN, Grinnell