Olivia Rosendahl captures Northwestern’s first-ever NCAA women’s diving title

Northwestern athletes can’t stop making history. On Saturday, Sophomore Olivia Rosendahl won a national title in platform diving, securing Northwestern women’s swimming and diving’s first-ever NCAA title.

After cruising through the preliminaries and entering the final as the No. 1 seed, Rosendahl won the event with 335.2 points, defeating the next-closest finisher by over 20 points. Rosendahl also finished eighth in the three-meter springboard, which earned her the first of two 2017 All-American honors at the meet.

Rosendahl, a Los Angeles native, has already become the best diver in Northwestern history. After her performance, Rosendahl said Northwestern does not even have a platform diving board at its facilities, which means she travels to a different pool to train once a week.

As a team, the Northwestern women placed 21st, its first top 25 performance since 2008. Valerie Gruest Slowing placed ninth in the 1,650m freestyle and earned All-American Honorable Mention honors. Triple school record holder Melissa Postoll ended her career in the 200m backstroke preliminaries.