Giordano caps college career as four-time All-American diver

Dominic Giordano secured his legacy as Pitt’s most decorated diver in program history at the 2017 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships over the weekend in Indianapolis.

Giordano failed to defend his title Friday in the three-meter dive, but he still made history in the final competition of his college career.

The senior took part in the one-meter dive Thursday and platform dive Saturday, earning Honorable Mention All-American honors in both events to become the Panthers’ first All-American diver across all three events for his college career.

Thanks to Giordano’s 8.0 points, Pitt finished in 34th place overall in the team competition.

Giordano started off his final NCAA Championships strong, earning Honorable Mention All-American in the one-meter springboard dive with a six-dive score of 347.60. He barely missed qualifying for the eight-man final after finishing his preliminary heat in ninth place. He then finished 16th overall with a six-dive score of 305.05 in the consolation final.

“He performed a fantastic set of dives. With how competitive the field was, scoring team points for Pitt on the one-meter was a great accomplishment,” Pitt diving coach Julian Krug Thursday in a press release.

Giordano then took to his marquee event — the three-meter springboard — Friday afternoon attempting to win back-to-back national championships.

Opening the defense of his title Friday afternoon, judges ruled Giordano’s fourth dive of the qualifying round incomplete because of a misstep. With that, his chances of defending his national title vanished.

Giordano still finished with an impressive score of 330.15 points on only five legal dives to place 22nd out of 50 divers. Krug said Giordano’s willingness to take risks backfired this time, but it’s also the reason he’s a national champion.

“What happened was really unfortunate, but things like that are part of this sport,” Krug said Friday in a press release. “When you’re as talented as Dom is, you have to dive aggressively and live on that edge in order to be successful. Last year, he won the national title for that reason. Today, it went the other way.”

Giordano rebounded from his setback Saturday in the platform dive, the last event of his collegiate career. A six-dive score of 366.90 landed Giordano in 10th place in the qualifying round, securing a spot in the consolation final, where he improved his score to 370.65. The performance earned him a 10th-place finish and another All-American Honorable Mention.

Along with becoming the first Pitt diver to earn All-American honors in all the three diving events, Giordano became the fourth four-time NCAA All-American in program history.

After 44 years of coaching diving at the college level, Krug said it’s been a pleasure to coach a special talent like Giordano.

“Dom’s positive attitude, hard work and talent have been tremendous assets to our program over the past few years,” Krug said Saturday in a press release. “Working with Dom has been such a great and rewarding experience at this later stage of my career. I wish him all the best in his future.”