Mar. 16, 2019

By Fred Liggett
[email protected]

The month of March is known for its madness of NCAA post-season meets, tournaments and more. For one Lee’s Summit native the 2019 post season has been pretty productive. Daniel Valmassei, a 2017 Lee’s Summit North grad, has qualified for the NCAA D-III national championships to be held in Greensboro, North Carolina March 20-23.

Valmassei is a sophomore at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas who has excelled this month in post season events. After competing in two events at the conference meet with one first place finish Daniel was named Diver of the Meet. Up next was the D-III, region 2 meet held in Grinnell, Iowa where he competed along with two teammates. Daniel scored well enough to be one of four qualifiers to the NCAA D-III national event taking place next weekend. Joining him at the national meet is teammate Anthony Liva.

The Trinity University team will fly to North Carolina on Monday, March 18 to begin a weeks’ worth of events surrounding the national championships. Everyone competing in the event will attend an NCAA banquet on Tuesday night. Four days of competition begins the next day Wednesday, March 20th. Daniel will compete in two events, the Men’s 1M, will see him in action on Thursday, March 21. On Saturday, March 23 he will compete in the Men’s 3M. Each of the diving events start in the morning with prelims, finishing with finals in the late afternoon.

When away from his diving pursuits Daniel is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Trinity. In addition to earning high scores this month Daniel continues to make his parents, Scott and Amy Valmassei and his LS North HS Coach Brian Ray extremely proud. Coach Ray is not surprised to hear of Daniel’s success at the college level. “Not surprised to hear how successful he is, always knew he would do great things.” Coach Ray adds “Daniel is one of the hardest working athletes I have ever had. Divers have to be focused and disciplined for what they do.” Thanks to the National Championships being held before March is over don’t be surprised to hear some more high scores from Daniel’s work this post season.

Update: Mar. 22, 2019 Valmassei Honored as All-American in Men’s Diving

Update: Apr. 8, 2019
Valmassei, a sophomore from Lake Lotawana, Mo., finished first on the three-meter and third on the one-meter board at this year’s conference championship meet to earn SCAC Diver of the Meet honors for the second consecutive year. He went on to qualify for the NCAA Championships on both boards, earning All-America honors on the 1-meter board with a fourth-place finish. He was the 16th on the three-meter board to earn Honorable Mention All-America honors.