Knight, Lane, Zhang Earn Bids to 2021 NCAA Championships

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams earned three more entries at the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, after Kyndal Knight, Chase Lane and Danny Zhang automatically qualified for spots during the second day of the 2021 NCAA Zone C Diving Championships Monday afternoon inside the Lancaster Aquatic Center.
 
Zhang, a junior, rallied third place overall on platform, combining for 724.70 points between preliminaries and finals (331.60 preliminaries, 393.10 finals). Through the second day of the Zone C Championships, Zhang has automatically qualified for the big dance on both the 3-meter springboard and platform, while he will look to meet the third and final standard on the 1-meter springboard Tuesday morning.
 
Lane competed for the first time during the meet, earning seventh place overall on platform with a score of 706.90. The senior collected 373.70 points during preliminaries and 333.20 points during finals, punching his first ticket to the national stage since 2018.
 
Knight earned her second entry to the NCAA Championships Monday afternoon, securing a spot on the 3-meter springboard. The junior finished in sixth place with a combined score of 583.55, collecting 307.40 of those points during preliminaries and 276.15 of those points during finals. Like Zhang, Knight has automatically qualified for the big dance on two disciplines already this week – 1- and 3-meter springboard – and she will look for her third and final entry on platform on Tuesday morning.

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 Tuesday morning, this time on the women’s platform and the men’s 1-meter springboard.

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.