1 + 3 = 2

By Patrick Bohn, March 25, 2024
Kailee Payne brings home a pair of national titles in the 1- and 3-meter dive at NCAA Championships.
Kailee Payne

Kailee Payne ’25 captured titles on both Thursday and Saturday night, bringing the school's all-time total to 57.

(Photo by Ithaca College Athletic Communications)

Kailee Payne ’25 captured titles on both Thursday and Saturday night, bringing the school's all-time total to 57.

(Photo by Ithaca College Athletic Communications)

Kailee Payne ’25 has proved that not only can you go home again, you can win national championships in the process.

The former Ithaca High School standout, who was the 2022 Conference USA Freshman Diver of the Year at Marshall University in West Virginia, has been dominating the competition since transferring to Ithaca College prior to the start of the season. That dominance brought her a pair of titles at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships, held this past week in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Payne became the 36th Bomber student-athlete to win an individual national championship last Thursday, when she finished first in the one-meter dive with a score of 515.15, easily outpacing the University of Chicago’s Veronica Fong, who finished with 452.70 points. Her score was the 4th best in program history.

Chris Griffin

Chris Griffin, was named the Division III Diving Coach of the Year by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America. (Photo by Ithaca College Athletic Communications)

Two nights later, Payne won the three-meter competition with a score of 509.50, once again topping Fong. She’s just the 13th Ithaca student-athlete to win multiple national championships, and the second member of the women’s swimming and diving team to win both the one- and three-meter titles in the same year, joining Nickie Griesemer ’17, ’19 DPT, who accomplished the feat in 2018.

Her efforts, which resulted in her being named Diver of the Meet, also secured the 56th and 57th individual national titles in school history.

Also coming home with hardware was diving coach Chris Griffin, who was named the Division III Diving Coach of the Year by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America.