Penn State’s Hector Garcia won his second title in as many events and Penn State added a third NCAA diving qualifier on the second day of the Zone A Diving Championships.
Garcia won the 1-meter title to go with his 3-meter win from a day earlier, and Penn State also added Logan Knauss to the NCAA roster after a 4th-place finish.
On the men’s side, Pitt also added Dominic Giordano, who took second on 1-meter for an NCAA berth.
Rutgers’ Addison Walkowiak won on the women’s side, taking the 3-meter title and the top NCAA qualifying spot in the zone.* She was already qualified after finishing 2nd on yesterday’s 1-meter springboard.
*Read up on the full NCAA selection procedures below.
After qualifying three male divers yesterday, Virginia Tech earned its first female diving berth, courtesy of Ashlynn Peters, the 3-meter runner-up.
The full list of qualifiers is below. Zone A gets 5 women and 4 men into the meet with NCAA reimbursement status, and the rest of the names on the list are eligible to attend on their school’s dime.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Addison Walkowiak, RUT | Hector Garcia, PSU |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Olivia Lehman, JMU | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Ashlynn Peters, VT | John Crow, PSU |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Dominic Giordano, PITT | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Meme Sharp, PITT | Mauro Silva, VT |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Alyssa Black, RUT | Benjamin Schiesl, VT |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Rebecca Corbett, UVA | Eduardo Castro, VT |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Logan Knauss, PSU | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | ||
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | — | |
| 15 | Platform 5th | — | |
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Alexandra Butera, UCONN | — |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | — | — |
| 18 | Platform 6th | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement. Athletes who have doubled up on qualifying spots are noted with a line through their lower priority slot.)
NCAA ZONE QUALIFYING PROCEDURES
From our refresher post, which you can find here.
Divers qualify for the NCAA Championships through Zone Meets spread across the country. Each zone earns a set number of NCAA qualifying spots based on the performances of that Zone at NCAAs in the past.
Here are the qualifying spots for each event in each zone:
Women
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Zone B | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| Zone C | 12 | 7 | 10 |
| Zone D | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| Zone E | 9 | 11 | 9 |
Men
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Zone C | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| Zone D | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Zone E | 8 | 5 | 8 |
Any diver who finishes within the qualifying spots for their zone earns eligibility for the NCAA Championships. Any diver who earns eligibility in one event can compete in any of the other two events at NCAAs, provided they finished inside the top 12 in their zone in that event.
The final wrinkle is a new rule from last season that makes a distinction between “eligible” athletes and “reimbursed” athletes. The NCAA loosened its rules last season to allow more divers into the meet, but divers qualifying under the new rules do not recieve reimbursement from the NCAA for their travel, lodging and meet expenses – that means it’s up to the individual school to decide if they will foot the bill themselves to allow the diver to compete at NCAAs.
Each zone has a set number of reimbursement spots between the three events combined:
| WOMEN | MEN | |
| Zone A | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 8 | 9 |
| Zone C | 11 | 8 |
| Zone D | 7 | 8 |
| Zone E | 10 | 6 |
The spots are determined by a priority chart. The winners of each event have first priority, starting with the 3-meter champ, then the 1-meter champ, then the platform champ. After that, the runners-up are added in the same order. If an athlete wins both 1-meter and 3-meter, they still only take one reimbursement slot, meaning the NCAA will keep adding rows of this chart until the reimbursement quota for that zone is met.
