Wong hits top spot

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DALLAS – Junior Kamryn Wong and sophomore Sydney Guidara continued their stranglehold on the American Athletic Conference Championship diving events on Thursday, as the UNT duo claimed gold and silver, respectively, in the 1-meter springboard event following Wednesday's gold medal in the team diving event, along with freshman Amelia Sharp.

Wong won the event with a score of 310.90 to top her teammate Guidara, who took second with a score 290.30, giving her her second individual silver medal in as many years at the meet after taking silver on the 3-meter board last year.

"I'm so happy to be here with everyone and so grateful for the support of the team," Wong said. "Everyone did great today, and I'm excited I got to share the podium with Syd."

Prior to Wednesday's team diving gold medal, UNT had never won an event at the AAC Championships and had never won a diving conference championship in its program's history. Before Wednesday, it had been six years since UNT had won a conference championship in swimming. Now, the Mean Green have two in two nights.

"The strength of this team has been so amazing all year long," associate head coach/diving coach Stephanie O'Callaghan said. "I'm so proud of all of them for the work and effort they've put in and it definitely paid off today. It was such an impressive showing across the board. ...It's not easy to hold your standings from prelims, and they stayed locked in and consistent. I couldn't ask for a better end to the night than seeing them up on the podium together."

The diving pair weren't the only UNT student-athletes to find themselves on the medal stand on Thursday, as senior Shaena McCloud claimed a bronze medal in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.57 to also give her an NCAA B-Cut time.

"I'm really excited for and proud of Shaena, and all of her work she has put into to the 50 free," head coach Brittany Roth said. "The work she's put in the weight room with (strength and conditioning coach) Tavion Pleasant has given her so much strength and power, and her skill and detail work with (assistant coach) Justin Hastings has helped her fine tune her efforts. Shaena's such a strong leader, and she's been a fighter since Day 1. I've loved watching her grow throughout her career, and getting the bronze tonight in such a fast field is really outstanding."

The 200 freestyle relay, which McCloud anchored, narrowly missed a spot on the podium in the night's final event. The team of Samantha Robles, Scarlett McCloud, Indra Vandenbussche and Shaena McCloud finished with a time of 1:31.72 to set a new school record.

The meet will continue with Day 3 of 4 on Friday and will be broadcast on ESPN+.