On March 16, senior Caroline Knopke represented Rockhurst University at the NCAA Division II Swim and Dive Championships in Geneva, Ohio, becoming the first member of the Rockhurst University swim and dive team to qualify for the national competition, a remarkable end to her longtime dive career and time at Rockhurst.
She earned the ability to compete in the national competition after placing 14th out of 49 contestants in the preliminary rounds.
“My goal this year was to make it to the NCAA championships and that is what I did no matter what other people were telling me. There was no better feeling than achieving my goal,” said Knopke.
As it was the inaugural season for Rockhurst’s swim and dive team, the senior knew from the start she wanted to compete.
Her diving career began at the ripe age of 8 and she described her childhood as “knowing nothing other than diving.” After excelling at the club level growing up, Knopke’s successes shifted but continued to flourish at the high school level. She was named a Missouri All-State diver in 2019 and finished in the top three in the state in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Following her impressive slate in high school, she decided to retire.
“In the end, I decided I wanted to stay close to home and just not dive in college, so I choose Rockhurst,” said Knopke.
She faced some regrets after not continuing her career but luckily, during her sophomore year at Rockhurst, she chose to attend an athletic interest group meeting, where she advocated for a swimming and diving program to be implemented. In October of 2022, her dream came to life as the university announced the addition of swim and dive to their athletics teams. Once the program got started, Knopke dove right in.
“Coming into this team I knew I was going to need to be a leader not only because I was one of the oldest, but because I have the most experience as well,” said Knopke.
Her most memorable moment from her diving career at Rockhurst was attending the NCAA Division II Swim and Dive Championships in March where she could finally showoff what she had been training for the whole season.
“No one knew who I was or what school I was from and didn’t expect me to make it into the meet. I just went there and dove with confidence and after the meet, everyone knew who I was,” said Knopke.
Though she had a successful season, she also faced difficulties as a collegiate diver.
“Diving is such a mental sport it can be hard to come back from setbacks, especially in meets,” said Knopke.
One of her coping strategies for these difficulties was to distract herself throughout meets, not watching other competitors. Before competitions, she remained calm by stretching, plugging in her headphones and focusing on her upcoming tasks. Throughout the good and the bad, Knopke emphasized it is most important to keep a positive attitude.
She offered immense gratitude to her coach, Ford Mcliney, who helped guide her through her first college season. He walked her through her dives mentally before her attempts and he also give her callouts to provide an awareness of where she was in the air.
“I think Ford is different from the other coaches I had growing up. His corrections are very detailed, and I worked really well with him. I would say he helped me excel a lot this year and if I had another year with him, I’d do even better at nationals next year,” said Knopke.
Despite facing the end of her Rockhurst diving career, Knopke hopes to stay involved with the sport. She intends to continue coaching a summer league team and a high school girls diving team, hopefully transforming them into future state champions.
As Knopke prepares to walk away from Rockhurst University this May, she reflects on her experience diving: “I felt so honored to represent this school and put us on the map. I know we’ve got some swimmers that are going to do the same thing next year.”
