Though we’re not DiveDove, we do dabble in diving coverage, and as diving can have a major impact on the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, we cover NCAA Zone Diving – mainly through the lens of how national diving qualifiers could impact the team points battles later this month.
2020 NCAA ZONE DIVING
- Zones A, B, D, E: Monday, March 9 – Wednesday, March 13
- Zone C: Thursday, March 12 – Saturday, March 14
- Host schools, with live result links:
- Revisit our NCAA selection primer
Women:
USC has a fourth women’s diver qualified for NCAAs, but it was Stanford’s Mia Paulsen who dominated the final day on a huge last dive. Paulsen scored a massive 72 points on her final dive to surge from fourth to first. It was Stanford’s young duo of Daria Lenz and Carolina Sculti who scored at NCAAs last year, but the junior Paulsen has had a huge week at Zones and qualified for NCAAs in all three diving events.
Stanford will have those three divers into the meet, and just missed adding a fourth. Freshman Julia Wortman was 10th today, and only the top 9 earned NCAA invites. But Paulsen and Lenz will both dive all three boards, and Sculti made the meet on both springboards.Hali_Helfgott, USC Athletics
USC had a great run this week on the boards. They have a meet-high four women into the meet, with Carly Souza taking second today. Souza, Naomi Gowlett and Nike Agunbiade were already invited before today, but all three now have platform to add to their entries. Agunbiade will dive all three boards, while Gowlett and Souza will dive two apiece. Savannah Stocker joined the roster today with a 6th-place finish.
Men:
Stanford All-American Noah Vigran waited until the last day to punch his ticket to NCAAs, but he’s in after winning platform.
Vigran was 6th at NCAAs last year on 3-meter and also scored on platform. But through two days of Zone competition, he was on the outside looking in with an 8th-place showing on 3-meter. Vigran took care of business on the final day, though, winning platform by almost 50 points and booking return NCAA trips in both events.
Stanford also added freshman Ethan Foster, who was the 5th of 6 divers invited on platform. They’ll now have three divers at NCAAs, with Conor Casey set to compete on both springboards.
USC’s Georgii Korovin was second, adding a third event after sneaking in on 3-meter the first day.
Other new NCAA qualifiers on day 3: Arizona’s Bjorn Markentin and Utah’s Luke McDivitt.
Current Qualifiers
SIMPLIFIED INVITE PROCEDURES
You can read a more in-depth look at the selection process here. Effectively, each Zone earns a specific number of qualifying spots in each event, based on how that Zone performed at NCAAs last year. Divers who place inside the qualifying places earn an NCAA invite. A diver invited in one event can compete at NCAAs in any other diving event where they were top 12 in their Zone meet. The highest-placing divers earn NCAA reimbursement, while lower-placing qualifiers can compete at NCAAs, but their school must pay for their travel and lodging at the meet.
