Dartmouth diver McCoy Lyman ’28 competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on March 26 and 27, making him the first Dartmouth diver to compete at the championships since 1999 and the first member of the men’s swimming and diving team to attend the meet since 2014. He finished 35th in the 1-meter dive with a score of 275.95, and 51st in the 3-meter competition with a score of 217.90.
Lyman qualified for the national championships after finishing fourth in the 3-meter dive and first in the 1-meter at the Zone A championships, a regional qualification meet. His successful season also included a third place finish in the 3-meter dive at the 2026 Men’s Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships. Lyman also set the Dartmouth men’s record in the 3-meter with a score of 397.50 in the preliminaries of the Ivy League Championships this season.
The Dartmouth sat down with Lyman to discuss his NCAA championship appearance, successful sophomore season and future goals.
What preparations throughout the regular season prepared you to qualify for the NCAA diving championship?
ML: Figuring out a really good routine for the practices in the week or two leading up to big, important meets, like Ivies and Zones, was really important for me — just making sure that I had a plan for myself for what I wanted to get done to make myself feel totally prepared. Once I got to the meet, for practice days and warm ups, I knew exactly what I wanted to get done every day to make sure that I was fully prepared for competition.
What was your experience at Zone Championships? How did you feel when you found out that you qualified for the NCAA championship?
ML: It was honestly one of my favorite dive meets that I’ve ever been to in my career. Spirits were really high, and I think that really contributed to my performance because I was having so much fun. Honestly, the qualification came as a really big surprise to me. I knew going in that there was a small chance that I could qualify, but considering that I’d been injured for a good part of the season, it just seemed really unlikely to me. It was a crazy feeling to finish the event and realize that I made it on 3-meter, and then the next day to have the same thing happen on 1-meter.
What was the highlight of your experience at the final NCAA meet?
ML: I would say a highlight for me was probably seeing a lot of people that I competed with in juniors or even old teammates from my club team back before I was in college compete at a national level. Reuniting with them was a really full circle moment for me, especially because the competition was actually at my own pool. It was really fun to just see everybody again and be back at my old stomping grounds.
What did you learn from this experience? Do you have any goals going into next season?
ML: I definitely learned that it’s really important to keep my mind clear during competition. I feel like one of the hardest things in diving is the mental aspect. Physically getting up on the board, you know how well you can do them and what you need to do to get them done. Being able to calm yourself down and perform like you need to under that kind of pressure is a hard thing to do. Working on that is going to be really important for next season.
Going into next season, I definitely want to make nationals again in at least one event. I would also like to, if I can, snag the 1-meter program record, because this past season I managed to get a 3-meter record. I don’t have the 1- meter yet, and I think it’s on the horizon.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
