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

38 Inside Hokie Sports Peters hopes that approach earns her a second consecutive bid to the NCAA Championships. If she qualifies, that meet will mark her last as a diver. She graduates in May with a degree in finance and plans on focusing on the next phase in life. In fact, shortly before Christmas, she interviewed for a positionwith a real estate development company inDallas, thus taking the next step toward the inevitable—life without diving. “I knew I just wanted to do it for my collegiate career and not take it any further because otherwise it does consume your life,” she said. “It’s all that you do. For diving, we don’t really have pros … so if I were to train past college, I would try to train for the Olympics, and in my head, you could dedicate two years of your life for nothing but diving for the Olympic Trials. And if you are off on that day, or something goes wrong, I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s two years of your life that you’ve wasted.’ So I’m ready for the next phase of my life.” Of course, she’s never going to forget the previous stage—four years in Blacksburg, 1,200 miles away from her hometown. Not that she considers Cypress that. For her, Blacksburg has become home. For her, Virginia Tech has been a place where she received a great education, achieved athletics greatness, and made everlasting friendships. In other words, for a thrill seeker, her journey has been the ultimate thrill. Continued from page 37 Tech diving coach Ron Piemonte has molded Ashlynn Peters into one of the ACC’s best divers.