At the start of her freshman season as a diver for Bridgewater State this winter, Haverhill’s Cailey Simard set a few goals for her career. Among them:
-Set a school record
-Make regionals.
-Earn a major conference honor.
“These were major goals that I had for myself for college,” she said. “Doing it all my freshman year was not expected. I’ve exceeded my expectations by a lot!”
After just one season, the former Haverhill High star has already checked all those boxes.
This winter, Simard earned Little East Conference Women’s Diver of the Year and LEC Rookie Diver of the Year in a breakout freshman season for Bridgewater State. She was also Little East Diver of the Week seven times during the season.
The former Eagle-Tribune All-Star also became the first diver in program history to qualify for the regional championships, and just the second diver in the history of the Bears’ swimming and diving program
“This season has been such a fun and exciting experience because of the people and the things I have been able to do,” said Simard. “I never thought I would be able to break four records my freshman year. This means a lot to me because I’ve worked hard for this spot, and if it wasn’t for my coaches and teammates supporting me the whole season, I don’t know if I could’ve done it.”
Simard dominated the 2023 Little East Swimming & Diving Championships, winning the 1-meter with an 11-dive score of 436.70 points, and winning the 3-meter with a score of 440.40 points. That set school records in both events.
“My 3-meter dives were great because two of them were new that I had just got the week before,” she said. “I had never done an 11-dive list at a meet on 3-meter until the conference meet, so I was very happy with how it turned out. I think 1-meter went well because I was focused and knew what I wanted to do.”
While she excelled at Haverhill High — taking second at Division 1 states and third at North Sectionals as a senior — Simard had to step up her game when she arrived at Bridgewater State.
“The biggest adjustment and challenge that I had was going from only training and competing one-meter in high school to training and competing in the 1 and 3-meter in college,” he said. “I had some experience on 3-meter from my club team, but nothing like I have now. I’m very happy with this change because I really like competing 3-meter and being able to train at a higher level.”
Simard — who placed 16th in the 3-meter and 17th in the 1-meter at NCAA Division 3 Regionals — has now set her focus on growing her skills even more for her sophomore campaign.
“Going forward, I am going to keep training hard, especially during the summer,” she said “I hope that I can get a few new dives on the 1 and 3-meter. I also want to try to keep breaking the records I set and make it to regionals again.”
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