2015 NCAA Championship qualifier Michal Bower is transferring from Arizona to Indiana for her remaining two years of collegiate eligibility.
“After months filled with thoughts and prayers I am proud to announce that I have decided to transfer to Indiana University,” Bower said in a Facebook post. “I have learned so much at the UofA and loved all the people God put in my life. I am going to miss my wildcat family and all the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know. But I am incredibly excited to continue my diving and academic career at IU. I look forward and embrace this brand new adventure and season in my life and all the amazing opportunities that lay ahead of me!”
This is the second high-caliber diver to transfer to IU in the last two seasons, after former NCAA Champion Michael Hixon joined the men’s group prior to the 2014-2015 season.
As a freshman, the Loveland, Colorado product was named the Pac-12 Women’s Diving Newcomer of the year thanks to a second-place finish on the 1-meter at the 2014 Pac-12 Championships. She made her first NCAA Championship meet appearance in 2015, thanks to the newly-expanded diving qualifying procedure, and finished 42nd in her lone event: the 1-meter springboard.
Bower is primarily a springboard specialist, though at Arizona she also dove platform for the benefit of team scoring at the Pac-12 Championships.
Both teams had divers earn NCAA titles last season: for Arizona, Sam Pickens won the 1-meter event, while for Indiana, Jessica Parratto was the platform champion.
Who cares? It’s great for her that she claims whatever higher power helped her be successful.
This could just be availability bias but has anyone else noticed a greater % of divers who recognize God for their success than swimmers?
(Normally I would quiver at posting this on a message board, and it’s great that I can hold SwimSwam to a higher/reasonable standard)
I don’t know if it is more common. I noticed 3 of the big stars of women’s ncaas (missy Franklin, Simone Manuel and Kelsi worrell) all mentioned God at least once during the meet.