College Diving
Rider's Burke Competes at NCAAs March 18-20

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.--Senior Amanda Burke of the Rider University swimming and diving team will compete at the 2010 NCAA Women's Championships Thursday through Saturday at Doris Z Holloway Pool in the Boilermaker Aquatic Center at Purdue University.

"This means a lot," Burke, a Communication major said.  "I love diving."

Burke, who is making her third trip to NCAAs, qualified last weekend at the NCAA Zone 'A' championships by winning the three-meter board and placing second on the one-meter board.

"It feels good that I helped trail blaze for the program," Burke said about being the first female NCAA qualifier at Rider in 2008 and seeing teammate Paul Apostolakis become the first male NCAA qualifier for the Broncs in 2010.  "For someone to say this is possible is one thing but when you see a teammate accomplish it, mentally, it becomes that much easier and I think that really helped Paul in what he was able to accomplish."

Apostolakis will compete at the 2010 NCAA Men's Championship, hosted by Ohio State University March 25-27.

A two-time Rider Female Athlete of the Year, Burke was 20th on the one-meter and 24th on the three-meter board at the 2009 NCAA championships after placing 35th on the three-meter and 39th on the one-meter at the 2008 NCAAs.

"The dedication that both Amanda and Paul have to excel is absolutely amazing," said diving coach Dennis Ceppa.  "Amanda has the dream to take this sport as far as she can and I believe she has the talent to do that."

"The past two years at NCAAs was rough," Burke said.  "My goal is to at least finish in the top eight.  I've been diving better at the bigger competitions this season so I am going into the championships with a little more confidence."

"The fact that both Amanda and Paul trusted me and Rider University to take them to this level, I am very proud of that," Ceppa, the 2010 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Diving Coach of the Year added.

One of 40 divers, Burke will compete in the one-meter competition on Thursday and on the three-meter board Friday.  The preliminaries are at 1:30pm with the finals at 7:00pm both days.

-RU-