Ipsen finishes heralded collegiate
diving career this month in Iowa

Clayton’s globetrotting diver Kristian Ipsen spent the first four days this week with eight Stanford teammates at the United States Air Force Academy while he competed in the NCAA Zone E diving championships hoping to qualify in all three events for his final national collegiate meet later this month in Iowa City.
“You have to finish in the top eight of an event here in order to make NCAAs. There is a new matrix system that allows anyone who finishes in the top eight of one event to qualify for nationals by finishing in the top 12 of the other events. It’s a better way of handling qualification,” Ipsen said from Colorado Springs this week.
Ipsen went into the Zone qualifying meet on a high after sweeping the one meter, three meter and platform events at his last Pacific 12 swimming and division championships at the end of February in Federal Way, Washington.
That facility holds a special place for the senior as it was there in 2012 that he qualified for the United States Olympic team for the London Games where he teamed with Troy Dumais for the bronze medal in the 3M synchronized event. It was the first diving medal for the USA since 2000.
Ipsen not only went into the zone meet off his conference success but with a history of seven Zone championships during his first three years at Stanford, including a sweep of all three competitions as a sophomore in 2013.
Winning three Pacific 12 titles this year doubled his total from 2013 and 2014. (He didn’t compete at the conference meet as a freshman while he trained for the Olympic Trials.)
He’s won three NCAA championships and had three more runner-up finishes. His 3M championship in 2012 was the first by a Stanford male diver in 82 years.
At the conference meet in Washington Ipsen was victorious off the 1M board for the third straight season. The four-time All-America bounced back from placing second in the 3M at the 2014 league meet while shattering his school-record 466.05 set in 2012 with 520.40 points this year.
Ipsen first conference platform title made him the fourth tower diving champion from Stanford. He is also only the second Stanford performer ever to sweep all three events at conference, joining Matt Frawley (1988).
Ipsen is working under a new coach at Stanford this year. Patrick Jeffrey took over last spring when Dr. Rick Schavone retired after coaching Cardinal divers for the 36 previous years including Ipsen’s first three seasons on The Farm and with his young diver in London.
In 1988 Jeffrey became the only diver to sweep all three NCAA events in the same year for Ohio State. “Patrick is great, especially at competitions. He knows what I’m going through at meets and he can keep things light hearted when that’s needed.”  Jeffrey represented the USA at two Olympics (1988 in Seoul and 1996 in Atlanta) so has a good feel for Ipsen balancing school with diving both for Stanford and the country.