Freshman Duncan Secures Bid to First NCAA Championships
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky divers concluded the 2021 NCAA Zone C Diving Championships on Tuesday afternoon, collecting four more entries to the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Four Wildcats collected a total of nine entries to the big dance throughout the Zone C Championships, as the No. 3 Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team finalized its NCAA team and the Kentucky men’s swimming and diving team inches closer to its NCAA team.
Sam Duncan delivered a star-studded performance on Tuesday afternoon, after collecting 645.30 points on the 1-meter springboard to earn one of seven automatic spots to the NCAA Championships on the discipline. The freshman will compete in his first NCAA Championships later this month, after he collected 287.80 points during preliminaries to finish in 15th place, then forcing 357.50 points during finals to finish in sixth place overall. The Virginia native earned a score of 69.00 on his third dive in finals, 107C, collecting a pair of 8.0 scores to push him past the finish line.
Kyndal Knight concluded the Zone C Championship earning an automatic spot to the NCAA Championships on all three disciplines. The junior collected her third and final bid on platform on Tuesday afternoon, finishing in sixth place overall with a score of 515.85. She tallied 242.40 points during preliminaries, followed by 273.45 points in finals to earn one of 10 automatic spots.
Like Knight, Danny Zhang, too, earned admission to the NCAA Championships on all three disciplines. On Tuesday afternoon, he finished in ninth place on the 1-meter springboard on a combined score of 627.45 – 318.20 points during preliminaries and 309.25 points during finals. Chase Lane also qualified for the NCAA Championships on the 1-meter springboard, finishing in 12th place on a combined score of 613.45 – 293.00 points during preliminaries and 320.45 points during finals.
While only the top seven on the 1-meter springboard automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships, both Lane and Zhang secured their admission to the big dance in the event by finishing in the top 12 and automatically qualifying in one or more others events.
Knight will join the 14 UK women’s swimmers that have already qualified for the 2021 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, raising Kentucky’s women’s swimming and diving NCAA team to 15 student-athletes. The swimmers’ 35 entries, combined with Knight’s three entries, make for 38 individual scoring opportunities at the big dance for the program, the most in school history by more than a dozen.
The NCAA Championships committee will release the invited list of male swimmers on Wednesday, March 10, while Lane and Zhang will join those men to makeup Kentucky’s men’s swimming and diving NCAA team.
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.
So, Who Qualified on What?
Kyndal Knight
1-meter springboard
3-meter springboard
Platform
Danny Zhang
1-meter springboard
3-meter springboard
Platform
Chase Lane
1-meter springboard
Platform
Sam Duncan
1-meter springboard
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 advanced to the final round. At the conclusion of the final round per discipline, tabulators compiled scores from the preliminary round and the final round to determine the divers that earned bids to the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Those automatic qualifying spots were 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 qualified for the NCAA Championships in one or more events at the Zone C Championships, he or she is 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.
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.
