Valentina Lopez Arevalo Prepares For NCAA Championships

SAN DIEGO – San Diego State diver Valentina Lopez Arevalo embarks on her quest for national glory this week when she represents the Aztecs at the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Federal Way, Washington.

Lopez Arevalo will compete in the 3-meter springboard event on Friday, March 21, at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. Competition trials are scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. PT, followed by consolation finals at 5:15 p.m. and the championship finals at 6 p.m.

Live coverage will be available throughout the day via subscription basis on ESPN+.

A total of 49 divers are slated to compete in the preliminary round, with the top eight finishers advancing to the championship finals and the ninth through 16th-place competitors earning a spot in the consolation finals.

Lopez Arevalo punched her ticket to the national meet after posting a sixth-place finish in the 3-meter springboard at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships on March 10 at the same facility in suburban Seattle. The SDSU senior recorded an aggregate 591.65 points for the day, climbing into sixth place after placing 10th in the preliminaries with a score of 286.75, as the top eight finishers in the event advanced to this week’s national championships

A native of Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, Lopez Arevalo will be making her second appearance in the national spotlight after qualifying for the NCAA meet as a freshman from the platform height. In addition, her performance gives the Aztec swim and dive program at least one national qualifier in each of the last 15 seasons the NCAA Championships have been contested (2020 canceled due to COVID pandemic).

For the second straight year, Lopez Arevalo earned Mountain West Diver of the Meet honors at the conference championships last month after compiling 92 points across three events, which marked the highest individual total in the field of competitors. The Aztec senior won gold medals in the 3-meter and platform events while capturing a silver medal on the 1-meter board.

With her efforts, Lopez Arevalo’s MW Diver of the Meet award marked the fourth time an SDSU student-athlete garnered such accolades after Ximena Lechuga Gonzalez received the same distinction in 2019 and 2022.

During the 2024-25 campaign, Lopez Arevalo captured 13 event titles (five in the 1-meter springboard and four apiece on the 3-meter springboard and platform tower), collecting three Mountain West Diver of the Week awards in the process.

Collectively, the San Diego State swim and dive program completed another successful campaign, winning its fourth straight Mountain West conference championship and sixth in the last seven years. With their crown, the Aztecs became just the second school in MW history to claim four straight team titles after former member Brigham Young accomplished the feat from 2007-10.