Monica Amaral
Women's Swimming & Diving, 2015-17
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
4-time National Champion diver - swept 1-meter and 3-meter boards in 2016 & 2017
2-time National Diver of the Year
6-time First Team All-America
3-time NSISC Diver of the Year & High Point Diver
2017 CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America
Holds all four UWF diving records on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards
Helped UWF to 6th place NCAA finish in both 2016 & 2017 - the highest in program history
Like many before her, Monica Amaral came to UWF as a transfer student.
But unlike anyone before her, the diving dynamo performed better than anyone on the boards in program history. All she did was win four national championships, earn two national Diver of the Year awards and become a 6-time All-American.
It wasn’t always a happy time for the Brazilian, though. She remembers a time at her first NCAA Championships where she finished second on the 3-meter board and felt as if she let the team down by not winning, which she felt she should have.
“I knew I had the potential to win but things didn’t work out the way I wanted,” she recalled. “I started crying on the pool deck, and the girls on the team came to congratulate me and tell me how proud they were for having me on the team.
Her teammates were there for her that day and remained by her side as she proceeded to dominate Division 2 diving the next two seasons.
She turned in the greatest NCAA Diving performance in D2 history in 2016 when she claimed the 3-meter national title with a 550.20 score for the first championship in program history.
"Since 2015, all I could think was 'Well I want to be first'," Amaral said in 2016. "So that was all that I thought about the entire season. That was my goal since the beginning and I'm really glad I could achieve it."
She continued her success by winning the 1-meter two days later before sweeping the titles again in 2017, picking up back-to-back NCAA Diver of the Year honors.
She became the first Argonaut in school history to earn two First Team Academic All-America nods from the College Sports Communicators. She graduated with a degree in building construction from UWF before going on to postgraduate work at the University of Alabama.
| Score |
Event |
Date |
Oppon |
| 494.85 |
1 meter (6 dives) |
2/18/2015 |
NSISC Championships |
| 546.25 |
3 meter (6 dives) |
2/18/2015 |
NSISC Championships |
| 511.10 |
1 meter (11 dives) |
2/17/2016 |
NSISC Championships |
| 556.30 |
3 meter (11 dives) |
2/17/2016 |
NSISC Championships |
