Kentucky Diving Primed for Zone C Championships
BLOOMINGTON, Ind – Six Kentucky divers will look to punch tickets to the 2023 NCAA Championships when the group competes at the Zone C Diving Championships at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, March 9-11, on the campus of Indiana University.
All six divers on the UK roster were able to qualify for Zones in at least one discipline by virtue of their performances during the 2022-23 season. Kyndal Knight, Abby Devereaux and Claire McDaniels give the Wildcats three student-athletes qualified in all three collegiate diving events, and are joined by teammates Sam Duncan, Jodi Cobb and Morgan Southall.
The meet will commence on Thursday with the men’s 1-meter and women’s 3-meter competitions, before divers swap boards on Friday. Saturday will then feature both the men’s and women’s platform. Action will begin at 1 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday and at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Live streaming can be seen on iuhoosiers.com, with live results also available on divemeets.com.
“Zone C” is one of five zones in the country and is made up of Division I schools from Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana. A total of 105 divers from 22 schools are set to compete at this year’s event. At the zone meets, the top 18 finishers from prelims will advance to the finals. Preliminary and final round scores will be added together to determine which divers will advance to the NCAA Championships.
Knight, a graduate-student, will be looking to qualify for NCAAs for the fifth-straight season. The Stanley, N.C. native was an All-American Honorable Mention in all three diving events a year ago and is a five-time SEC medalist. She earned silver on platform at this year’s SEC Championships and has set new career-best scores in the one-meter, three-meter and platform during the 2022-2023 season.
Southall (2020, 2022), McDaniels (2021) and Duncan (2021, 2022) are also former NCAA qualifiers who are hoping to return to the national stage once again, while Devereaux and Cobb will make their Zones debut.
The number of Zone-C qualifying spots available in each event are as follows:
- Men’s 1-meter (9)
- Men’s 3-meter (8)
- Men’s Platform (12)
- Women’s 1-meter (10)
- Women’s 3-meter (9)
- Women’s Platform (11)
UK Entries
- Jodi Cobb (Platform)*
- Abby Devereaux (1M, 3M, Platform)*
- Kyndal Knight (1M, 3M, Platform)*
- Claire McDaniels (1M, 3M, Platform)*
- Morgan Southall (1M, 3M)*
- Sam Duncan (1M, 3M)+
*Women’s
+ Men’s
For the latest on UK Swim & Dive, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @UKSwimDive, and on Facebook at Kentucky Swimming and Diving.
