March 15, 2014
Columbus, Ohio – For the second day in a row, five of six University of Kentucky divers advanced to the finals on the second day of the NCAA Zone Diving Championships at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion Friday.
Junior Christa Cabot placed second in the women’s 3-meter competition after a fourth-place finish Thursday to highlight UK’s second day in Columbus, Ohio. Senior Greg Ferrucci headlined the men’s 1-meter event with a sixth-place finish after he finished third yesterday in the 3-meter.
“Christa Cabot was very good today,” UK diving coach Ted Hautau said. “She came out strong in both the preliminaries and the finals. It can be a pressure cooker in this format. The field today included the defending NCAA Champion and a strong field of divers and I was proud of the way she managed herself and performed. She still has some room for improvement so hopefully we can iron some of those things out for the NCAA Championships.”
Cabot scored a 689.90 to finish second after a 349.30 in the prelims, the top score in the opening round. She was joined in the finals by fellow junior Lindsay Keahey, who placed 14th overall with a 550.55.
Ferrucci earned a 635.90 final score after a 326.60 in the prelims to place sixth overall. Fellow seniors Zack Peterson and John Fox also advanced to the finals and finished 12th and 15th overall, respectively. Peterson scored a 588.55, while Fox totaled a 566.75. Sophomore Noah Richter finished 24th overall with a 267.90.
The three-day competition concludes Saturday with the men’s and women’s platform event.
Kentucky’s six divers will look to join a field of four swimmers and one relay squad who have already earned NCAA berths. Juniors Christina Bechtel and Abby Myers and freshman Danielle Galyer will represent UK at the women’s championships next weekend in Minneapolis, Minn. Freshman Brandon Flynn, along with UK’s 200 medley relay team of senior Lucas Gerotto, junior George Greenhalgh and seniors Eric Bruck and Chris Lott will swim for Kentucky at the men’s championships the following weekend in Austin, Texas.
Fans can follow along with all the action from OSU’s McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion with live results at DiveMeets.com. Additional updates can be found at @UKSwimDive, the official Twitter account of the UK swimming and diving program.
For complete news and updates on the Kentucky Swimming and Diving program, go to UKathletics.com/SwimmingDiving. Breaking news, behind-the-scenes updates, photos and more can be found on Twitter at @UKSwimDive and Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive.
