Knight, Zhang Punch Tickets on First Day of Zone Championships

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two University of Kentucky divers punched a ticket to the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships on the first day of the 2021 NCAA Zone C Diving Championships Sunday afternoon, hosted at the Lancaster Aquatic Center.
  
Danny Zhang earned a trip to the national stage after finishing in third place on the 3-meter springboard, punching one of seven tickets available on the discipline. He rallied a total score of 775.25, earning 399.35 points in the preliminary session and 375.9 points in the final session.
 
Kyndal Knight punched one of seven tickets to the NCAA Championships on the 1-meter springboard, too. The sophomore earned fifth place on an overall score of 552.80, earning 266.00 points in the preliminary session and 286.80 points in the final session.

Five UK divers are competing at the 2021 NCAA Zone C Diving Championships this week – Sam Duncan, Kyndal Knight, Chase Lane, Rodrigo Romero and Danny Zhang. The lineup will compete again tomorrow, this time on the women’s 3-meter springboard and the men’s platform.

Schedule of Events

 
Brush Up
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 week had to meet preset standards at a meet throughout the season in order to qualify for the zone championships. A diver could have met a standard on one, two or all three disciplines – 1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard and/or platform.
 
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 the divers that will earn bids to the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving 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.
 
Fourteen swimmers from the UK women’s swimming and diving team have already been invited to compete at the national meet – the zone championship is the final opportunity to qualify athletes for the NCAA Championships. The committee will release the invited male swimmers this coming week. Divers who qualify this weekend will join the UK swimmers at the national meet.
 
The 2021 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will commence March 17-20, while the 2021 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships resumes March 24-27, both at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
 
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.