Florida’s Kahlia Warner and Tennessee’s Mauricio Robles each won their second titles of the meet on day 2 of the 2016 Zone B Diving Championships.
Warner won the women’s 3-meter event and Robles the men’s 1-meter. Both will go for the full meet sweep on platform tomorrow.
In terms of the NCAA team battles, the Florida men did add a diving qualifier in Samel Smith, who was 7th on 1-meter. For the women, Warner and Georgia’s Olivia Ball were the top two finishers, but both were already qualified into the NCAA meet.
The full list of qualifiers is below. 8 women and 9 men will earn NCAA reimbursement and the rest of the names will be eligible to compete at NCAAs, but on their school’s own budget.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Kahlia Warner, FL | Mauricio Robles, TENN |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | ||
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Olivia Ball, UGA | Liam Stone, TENN |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Justin Youtsey, AUB | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Rachel Rubadue, TENN | Jack Nyquist, UNC |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Rachel Mumma, NCSU | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Wallace Layland, MIA | Briadam Herrera, MIA |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Julia Vincent, SCAR | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Elissa Dawson, UNC | |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Carolyn Chaney, MIA | Bradley Homza, GT |
| 15 | Platform 5th | ||
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Kara McCormack, MIA | Brent Sagert, BAMA |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Jordan Gotro, SCAR | |
| 18 | Platform 6th | ||
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Sarah Chewning, TENN | |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | Samuel Smith, FL | |
| 21 | Platform 7th | ||
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | Lauren Lamendola, SCAR | Ian Forlini, UGA |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | Dylan Grisell, FSU | |
| 24 | Platform 8th | — | |
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | — | Scott Lazeroff, AUB |
| 26 | 1-meter 9th | Maria Lohman, UNC | Ozzie Moyer, UNC |
| 27 | Platform 9th | — | — |
| 28 | 3-meter 10th | — | Evan Moretti, Duke |
| 29 | 1-meter 10th | — | |
| 30 | Platform 10th | — | — |
(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.
