Kentucky Hosts NCAA Zone C Diving Championships This Weekend

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky swimming and diving program will host the 2020 Zone C Diving Championships at the Lancaster Aquatic Center, March 12-14. The Zone C Diving Championships is the lone opportunity for divers to compete for entries at the national meet, while swimmers earned qualifying cuts throughout the year.
 
Admission is free, and fans are encouraged to attend.
 
How it Works
The United States is sectioned into five zones. UK is in Zone C, which includes Division I programs from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Divers competing this weekend had to meet preset standards at a dive meet throughout the season in order to qualify for the zone championships. A diver could have met an NCAA standard in one, two or all three disciplines – 1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard and/or platform.
 
The UK divers competing at the Zone C Championships are as follows:
 
Emma Dellmore (1M, 3M)
Cara Hudson (1M, 3M, PL)
Kyndal Knight (1M, 3M, PL)
Caiden Lake (1M, 3M)
Chase Lane (1M, 3M, PL)
Morgan Southall (1M, 3M)
Danny Zhang (1M, 3M, PL)
 
At the zone championships, the top-18 finalists from the preliminary round will advance to the final round. At the conclusion of the final round per discipline, tabulators will compile scores from the preliminary round and the final round to determine which divers will earn bids to the 2020 NCAA Championships. Those automatic qualifying spots are as follows:
 
Zone C: Automatic Qualifying Spots
1-Meter – Women: 7; Men: 7
3-Meter – Women: 6; Men: 7
Platform – Women: 10; Men: 10
 
If a diver auto qualifies for the NCAA Championships in one or more events at the Zone C Championships, he or she will be allowed to optionally enter any other event(s) at the national meet, provided that the diver finished in the top 12 in the additional event at the same zone meet.
 
This weekend’s schedule is as follows:
 
Schedule of Events
Thursday, March 12        1 p.m.                 Women’s 1M
                                                                        Men’s 3M
                                                                        15-minute break in between list to cut to top 18
 
Friday, March 13             1 p.m.                 Men’s 1M
                                                                        Women’s 3M
                                                                        15-minute break in between list to cut to top 18
 
Saturday, March 14        11 a.m.               Women’s PL
                                                                        15-minute break in between list to cut to top 18
                                                                        One-hour warm up for men
                                                                        Men’s PL
 
Events will run “straight through” with a 15-minute break between the end of preliminaries and the beginning of the finals.
 
Bringing it Together
Ten swimmers from the UK women’s swimming and diving team have already been invited to compete in the national meet. The committee will release the invited male swimmers Wednesday. Divers who qualify this weekend will join the UK swimmers at the national meet.
 
The NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will commence March 18-21 at the Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Georgia, while the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships resumes March 25-28 at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.