As the biggest meet of the year approaches, senior Kristen Davies is peaking at the right time. Davies took second place in the platform dive at the ACC Championships in February–a meet in which she set five school records and was named All-ACC for the second straight year. Last weekend, she took home first place honors at the NCAA diving zone with a total score of 576.80.

“She is obviously performing very well. She had a great ACC’s, battling it out with the current ACC champion from Miami and another great one at the zone meet,” coach Jenny Johansen said. “She is really set up to have a great meet.”

Davies is the only swimmer or diver from N.C. State that qualified for the NCAA’s, and even though she wishes her team was with her, she feels no added pressure about having to represent the Wolfpack alone. 

“It kind of sucks that no one else on the team is here with me but it’s still a lot of fun. I would rather have the whole team with me,” Davies said. “But it feels awesome being able to represent the school at the NCAA’s.”

This will not be Davies’ first NCAA Championship. As a junior, she was able to take 13th in the platform dive as a junior.

“This is a higher level competition by far and the depth is higher quality and goes deeper, so there is less chance for making up misses,” Johansen said. “But as far as the crowd and the people, its more that Kristen will feed off of it and just be excited to be there and feel like she can perform in front of everybody. She won’t look at it as a lot of pressure except just being excited and going out there hoping to do her best.”

Davies, who is competing in both the platform and the 3-meter dive, has her own goals and expectations for this meet that she hopes to be able to obtain. 

“I have my own individual goals, and I am going after that. But I’m not really too worried about what other people think about how I do,” Davies said. “I am going to just go after the goals I set for myself, which is to medal.”

Davies believes even after tallying her career best score, 314.20, at the ACC Championships there is room for improvement that can lead to her finishing well in the NCAA’s. 

“It was awesome. That was where I wanted to be and I had a great meet. I scored a personal best,” Davies said. “But I missed a dive and still scored my personal best so I know I can do even better. There are just little things I can improve on each dive.”

With the NCAA Championships being the last meet of the year, and the fact that Davies is a senior, Johansen hopes that she is able to use everything she has in this meet and perform well. 

“It’s all about putting everything she has into it, which she already has done,” Johansen said. “Everything that we have done this year and everything that she has done in her career in this sport leads up to this.”