March 14, 2013

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Junior diver Greg Ferrucci and sophomore Christa Cabot earned berths to the 2013 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday with their performances on the first day of the Zone C Diving Championships on the campus of Purdue University.

Ferrucci, a two-time NCAA qualifier, will advance to his third NCAA Championships of his career with his first place finish on the 1-meter springboard, finishing with a 825.75 after finishing second in the preliminaries with a 402.05 to make the field of 18 to move onto the finals.

His 21.65 point improvement in the finals pushed him into first place to clinch his spot at the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis at the end of March.

Colby Coleman, John Fox and Corey Cowger each advanced to the finals in the event along with Ferrucci. Coleman finished in ninth overall (654.10), Fox in 14th (636.45) and Cowger finished in 16th (609.35).

“We had a very good first day,” said head dive coach Ted Hautau. “John Fox missed the same dive in each list but really was solid otherwise. Colby Coleman had the two best lists of his career and finished 9th which was great for a freshman. Greg dived well in the prelims and stepped it up a notch to get a good win.”

Cabot will be making her first career appearance in the NCAAs with her fourth place finish on the 3-meter board. She scored a 623.10 to earn the final spot of the 3-meter qualifiers. She finished in third place in the preliminary round, scoring 305.85, improving her scores in the finals by 11.4 points.

Chewning joined Cabot in the finals, finishing in 11th place with a final score of 576.90.

“Sarah Chewning and Christa Cabot were terrific today on 3-meter,” said Hautua. “Sarah had the best list of her career in the preliminaries. Christa dived like a veteran today in the finals and nailed her last dive under a ton of pressure. Clutch performance to make NCAAs.”

With Ferrucci and Cabot each qualified, UK will look to add a few additional divers to the NCAA field when the men switch to the 3-meter event and the women compete on 1-meter Friday beginning at 1 p.m. ET at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center on the second day of action at the Zone C Diving Championships.

Men’s 1-Meter Finals

1. Greg Ferrucci (825.75)
9. Colby Coleman (654.10)
14. John Fox (636.45)
16. Corey Cowger (609.35)

Women’s 3-Meter Finals

4. Christa Cabot (623.10)
11. Sarah Chewning (576.90)