Ithaca College’s Kailee Payne repeats as national diving champion

There have been many national champions who have graced Ithaca College over the years. In fact, 36 athletes have brought individual titles back to South Hill. Only two athletes have won four national titles, and one of them recently joined that ultra-exclusive list.

Kailee Payne captured her third and fourth national diving titles from March 20-22 in Greensboro, North Carolina at the 2025 NCAA Division III National Championships. She joins track and field star and 2018 graduate Taryn Cordani as the only Bomber athletes to triumph four times at nationals. The Freeville native and Ithaca High School alum successfully defended her trophies from last season off both the one-meter and three-meter boards. It was the absolute best possible way to end an illustrious career diving for the Bombers.

“The fact that I have worked so hard and put in so many hours and so many tears and so much sweat—and blood a little bit—it’s just crazy to know that I have put in the work and I’ve accomplished something that people can hopefully look up to me for,” Payne said. “I’s kind of something that I could be someone’s idol in the future. I mean, not just for myself but also for all the growth that I’ve personally gone through to get to this point.”

Payne began her conquest off the one-meter board. She recorded a finals score of 486.30, beating the runner-up to the punch by just under 16 points. Two days later, it was time to conquer the three-meter board. During preliminaries, she set an NCAA record with an 11-dive total of 530.95. It was more of the same dominance in the finals, scoring a 522.80 to make more history for the Bombers. Compared to last year’s outing at nationals, Payne felt a lot more comfortable this go-around, and that all comes down to her mindset.

“Looking back at last year’s nationals, I was shaking going into my one-meter final performance,” Payne said. “You need to remind yourself that you’re doing this because you enjoy it, so don’t let it consume you. And when I went on those boards again, it wasn’t, ‘Do the dive to the best of your ability.’ It was just, ‘Do it because you enjoy doing it.’ It’s silly, but you dive the best when you’re just enjoying it. You don’t dive with anger. You don’t dive with fear. You just dive with enjoyment, because it’s cool what we do.”

The mental side of the sport has been by and large the most significant area of growth throughout her time diving at Ithaca College. There was even room for improvement in the weeks leading up to her swan song.

“I think I’ve gotten much better at giving myself grace and not beating myself up over the little errors,” Payne said. “I actually had a period going into my last month of diving and getting ready for nationals where I just felt like every little error was so unacceptable. But I reached out to friends. I reached out to my coach all the time. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m not enjoying this. How do I fix it?’ So we worked on it, and I learned that it’s not that deep… Yes, I want to accomplish these big tasks and big deals, but at the end of the day, I’m just a girl who started diving because it’s cool, so it’s not that deep. Give yourself grace.”

Unsurprisingly, Payne was named the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of American (CSCAA) Division III Diver of the Year for the second straight year. Her coach Chris Griffin was also honored once again as the CSCAA Division III Women’s Diving Coach of the Year. Payne has certainly learned a lot from Griffin over the years, but the biggest takeaway is simple: find enjoyment in everything you do.

“There’s no meet, no accomplishment, no accolade that I could receive or achieve that will ever top the feeling of truly enjoying what you did,” Payne said. “Yes, I won a national title four times, but I enjoyed what I did. I had fun with my teammates. I was surrounded by people that made the sport memorable for me. As much as I’ve accomplished a lot, I had fun while doing it, and I think that’s something that not everyone can say they did. It’s truly the people around me that made that possible for me to enjoy what I do. It’s me focusing on, ‘I do this because it’s cool and flipping is fun.’ That’s what it really comes down to. I’m so grateful for everything that I’ve gone through, but it’s because I enjoyed it.”

While Payne’s unforgettable time diving for the Bombers has come to a close, the legacy that she leaves behind will be everlasting.

“It’s just a sense of disbelief that my diving career got to end in such an incredible way,” Payne said. “Since I was 12, I’ve been wondering, ‘What is my last dive gonna look like? What is my last meet gonna look like?’ And as much as I wanted to just enjoy everything, I went above and beyond that.”