University of Hawai'i sophomore Emma Friesen closed with a brilliant final dive yesterday to win the 1-meter springboard at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Columbus, Ohio.

Friesen, from North Vancouver, Canada, is the second Rainbow Wahine to win an NCAA diving title. QiongJie Huang won 1-meter in 2005.

Friesen beat Huang's school record yesterday, collecting 336.20 points on her six dives in the final round. She won by less than five points over Texas' Mary Yarrison (331.60).

The UH sophomore led after preliminaries, making her the last diver in the eight-woman finals. Between rounds, she got a text message from Rainbow men's diver Magnus Frick, from Sweden, giving her his "Thor super powers."

After the first five dives, Friesen led by two points. "Thor" kicked in on the last dive as she clinched her national title by hitting a reverse 1 1/2 with 1 1/2 twists. Her score of 61.10 was the highest of the day. It was the same dive she missed at last week's zonals, falling off the board.

"I knew I had to nail it after watching Mary nail her inward 1 1/2," Friesen said by phone from Ohio. "I was thinking, 'Have both feet on the board and get down. Just do it.' ... Then you've just got to let it go. Trust yourself. I knew as soon as both feet hit the board and I kept my head down that I had it."

Frick and teammate Mats Wiktorsson, heading to men's nationals next week, watched Friesen's last dives live online in Manoa with Anita Rossing. She and husband Mike Brown coach the UH divers. All celebrated the moment they saw Friesen's final dive.

Friesen, also the Western Athletic Conference 1-meter champion, was named to the CSCAA All-America Team following the preliminary round. She competes in the 3-meter today buoyed by yesterday's brilliance.

"I didn't ever expect myself to be able to pull it all together when it counted," Friesen said. "Diving is such an interesting sport like that. Anything can happen, anything. It's always a shock. Beating the Hawai'i record is awesome. Just going into that last dive was an experience in itself."