Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 3 | January 2019

Two years ago, before the finals of the 3-meter diving event at the ACC Swimming and Diving Championships being held at the McAuley Aquatics Center in Atlanta, Ron Piemonte sat down in a chair on the pool deck, leaned back slightly, and crossed one leg over the other. Even with the excitement building, Virginia Tech’s diving coach looked relaxed, more like someone getting ready to enjoy a glass of merlot than a coach preparing to watch one of his athletes in the biggest competition of her life. He summoned his standout pupil for what she thought would be a quick word of encouragement before she made her way to the 3-meter springboard. “All right, Ashlynn,” he said in a calm tone. “Go out and win this for me.” He said it so breezily, so casually, as if beating the top competition in one of the nation’s best conferences were as simple as tying a shoe. His tone and words caught Ashlynn Peters by surprise, but only for a fleeting moment. Her coach obviously was relaxed, so why not be that way, too? “I’m like, ‘OK, Ron. Sure, let’s do this,’” Peters said. “I just had fun the whole final. In the final at the ACCs, the whole swim team was around the deck watching, and they [league officials] showcase the 3-meter event at night, so it was just like everyone was watching, and I had so much fun with it.” The party, though, began in earnest after the finals when Peters, a sophomore at the time, outscored everyone to win the gold medal. She became just the second Virginia Tech women’s diver ever to win an ACC championship, joining the incomparable Kaylea Arnett (2012- 15), a three-time ACC Diver of the Year. Peters also became just the third Virginia Tech women’s diver to win a conference championship in the past 20 years, joining Arnett and Jackie Davoud, who won five conference championships in diving events during the school’s Atlantic 10 days in the late 1990s. “I was really surprised with winning ACCs,” Peters said. “I’ve always known that I’m capable of being at the top of the pack, and I think when I came to college, I was looking for somewhere where I could stay competitive. But I definitely didn’t go into ACCs thinking that I could win … but also with diving, it can be a sport of whoever’s day it is. The best ever in the world can get a bad hurdle and mess up. It’s just a matter of who is hitting their dives and who is not. I just had the best meet of my life.” The victory marked the start of her progression toward diving excellence. Last year as a junior, she was the only ACC diver to qualify for the finals in all three events—the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform—winning a bronze in the platform event. As a result, she was named the ACC meet Most Valuable Women’s Diver. A few weeks later, she qualified for her first NCAA Championships. Ten years ago, she never would have expected to be in such a position. She grew up in Cypress, Texas—a suburb of Houston—and originally immersed herself in gymnastics. Flipping, jumping and tumbling fit with her energetic nature and big personality, and she quickly excelled, advancing to level 9 by the time she reached the age of 12. Like with a lot of young gymnasts, though, she became tired of the training, which amounted to between 25-30 hours per week. “I just started to get really miserable and hate it,” she admitted. Tracey Peters, Ashlynn’s mom, knew that her daughter needed an avenue to release that energy. A friend of the family’s suggested diving. That’s not the first sport that parents think of when getting their children involved in extracurricular activities, but for the Peters family, it certainly made sense. After all, the flips and twists learned in gymnastics figured to correlate with diving, so why not start Ashlynn in that sport? Ashlynn Peters needed something to do after giving up gymnastics as a child, and a dive into diving led her to Virginia Tech, where she has enjoyed a tremendous career by Jimmy Robertson 36 Inside Hokie Sports