Womens Swimming: Perry-Eaton: Simply oustanding
By PAT LEONARD
Sports Writer
UNIONDALE, N.Y.
The Big East conference scheduled the weekend events precisely.
The Nassau Aquatic Center staff worked out times slots for each event and each awards ceremony. So when the judges called the platform divers to the winners' blocks at 8:49 p.m. Saturday, it was going as planned.
A Rutgers diver received third place. She waved her hand and smiled.The Miami diver on the victor's block beamed with pride, although platform diving awards no points.
But the second-place block was empty. Out of the crowd came Notre Dame diver Meghan Perry-Eaton, who jogged down poolside a bit late. Maybe Perry-Eaton was not as enthused because she knew she would be receiving another award that evening as the 2003 Big East Outstanding Diver of the Year.
Perry-Eaton may not have stepped up to receive her platform award right away, but the junior diver did step up when it counted at the Big East championships this weekend to help her team to a seventh consecutive title.
"I was pretty excited about winning the award," Perry-Eaton said. "I didn't know because Miami is really strong and Katie Beth [Bryant] got the same places as I did. She has a little more experience and I thought she might have a little more pull, but I was excited to get it."
Miami finished third ahead of Virginia Tech at the championships, in part due to its diving program which is regarded as among the finest in the country. Beating Miami made the victory that much sweeter for Perry-Eaton and Notre Dame.
"She's been working for a long time," said head diving coach Caiming Xie. "We always knew she was capable of what she has done, capable of winning this title. She's a fighter and she is prepared mentally for that [kind of pressure]."
Injured and inactive her entire freshman season, the Brandon, Fla., native rehabilitated and entered the Irish lineup her sophomore season with a bang. That year, Perry-Eaton nearly qualified for the NCAA championships, coming in sixth in the one-meter diving and 13th in the 3-meter at the NCAA Zone Diving competition.
As a sophomore at the Notre Dame invitational, Perry-Eaton even shattered All-American Heather Mattingly's record in the 3-meter dive in six dives with 333.82 points, beating the previous All-American's 332.40.
More pertinent to the past weekend's meet, however, Perry-Eaton placed second in the 1-meter dive with 293.50 and fourth in the 3-meter dive with 507.50 last season at Big East.
So this year she was out to prove something to herself and, more importantly, to help her team's cause.
"Coach told me it would be a dogfight points-wise, so I knew what I had to do for our team and that really got me going," Perry-Eaton said.
During the season Perry-Eaton was one of the most reliable Notre Dame swimmers or divers. She practically guaranteed the Irish first place points from the dive.
So at Big East this year, Xie and head swimming coach Bailey Weathers expected a solid contribution out of Perry-Eaton, but a first- and second-place finish?
Perry-Eaton won the 1-meter dive (309.20 points) and finished second in the 3-meter (501.05) to boost the team's confidence.
"Meghan really gave us a huge lift," Weathers said. "She's been working hard for this title and we're working hard too," coach Xie said. Xie has coached mens and womens diving at Notre Dame since 1995. He was acknowledged as Big East diving coach of the year in 1999.
"To prepare for the meet, we talked about confidence on the dive. We told her she should just think of herself diving well as she did all year. She must concentrate and focus and stay calm, and she did that. She did an excellent job."
She stayed calm during the events. Don't know about the award ceremonies.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 24, 2003
