UK Diving Primed for NCAA Zone C Championships

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Seven divers have qualified to compete at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships on March 10-12 in West Lafayette, Ind.  The three-day meet will determine the qualifiers to the NCAA Championships, held in Atlanta, Ga.  The women’s NCAA Championships will be held on March 16-19, while the men’s Championships will be the following week on March 24-26.

A different number of spots are allotted to each gender in each event.  In the 1-meter dive, the top-12 women will be advance to the national championships, while the top-seven men’s finishers will advance.  The 3-meter dive is the stingiest in terms of the number of qualifiers, with the top-seven women and top-nine men making it to the national stage.  In the platform dive, the top-10 women and the top-eight men will qualify.  Additionally, if an individual qualifies in one event and finishes in the top-12 in another, he/she will be permitted to compete in the additional event at the NCAA Championships.

The top-18 finishers in the springboard prelims and the top-12 in the platform prelims advance to the championship rounds to ultimately determine the group of NCAA qualifiers.  Scores from the prelims carry over to the finals.

The women have qualified all four divers in at least one event.  Rebecca Hamperian will compete in all three disciplines, while the freshman diving group of Courtney Clark, Kailey Francetic and Maddie Gordon will appear on the 1-meter springboard.  Additionally, Clark is slated to compete in the platform dive, while Francetic will appear in the 3-meter dive.  Hamperian, a two-time 2015 All-American, saw the most success this year on the 1-meter springboard, reprising her silver medal at the SEC Championships this year.  She also advanced to the final of the platform dive at this year’s conference meet alongside Clark.

On the men’s side, both Levi Lindsey and Seb Masterton will compete on both springboards as well as tower.  Noah Richter will also appear for the Wildcats, competing for a spot in the 1-meter dive.  Lindsey returns as an NCAA qualifier in 2015, with national experience in the platform dive and a fourth-place finish in the event at the 2016 SEC Championships.  The Wildcats have been led this year by Masterton, who earned silver medals at the SEC Championships in both the 3-meter and platform dives.  

Thursday’s competition will consist of the women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter, which are both slated to begin at 1 p.m. ET.  The two will switch springboards for Friday, with the women on the 3-meter while the men will compete in the 1-meter dive.  Saturday will see both on platform, starting with the women’s tower at 11 a.m. with the men’s competition scheduled to start approximately one hour following the conclusion of the women’s event.

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