Kansas senior Vicky Xu concluded her first day of competition at the 2019 NCAA Championships as an All-American on the one-meter board Thursday evening inside the Jamail Texas Swimming Center.

Xu started the day with a solid preliminary event on one-meter when she nailed in a top-seven finish with a score of 299.25 to send her to finals. In the evening, her 284.60 scored performance on the one-meter diving event awarded her an All-American honor with an eighth-place finals finish.

That performance made Xu the first Jayhawk to advance to finals at the NCAA meet since 2016 when Chelsie Miller swam a top-eight finishing time in the 400-yard individual medley. In addition, the last time the NCAA diving boards saw a Jayhawk was when Erin Mertz dove a 284.35 and seventh-place finish back in 2009.

“We have high expectations for her (Vicky) just based on her skill level and what we have seen this season and yet she exceeded it significantly,” head diving coach Gabe Downey said in a team release. “That is hard to do when you are that good. And so for her to come out and have a performance in a new environment was remarkable, especially in prelims. She is a gamer, it was a performance and it just lead to a really fun time.”

Xu returns will compete in the three-meter diving event at 11:30 a.m. Friday.