Virginia Men, Women Add 1 NCAA Diver On Day 1 of Zone A

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.

2019 NCAA ZONE DIVING

• Zones A, B, D, E: Monday, March 11 – Wednesday, March 13
• Zone C: Thursday, March 14 – Saturday, March 16
• Host schools with live results links:
  • Zone A: U.S. Naval Academy – Annapolis, MD
  • Zone B: Auburn University – Auburn, AL
  • Zone C: Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN
  • Zone D: University of Texas – Austin, TX
  • Zone E: Northern Arizona University – Flagstaff, AZ
• Revisit our NCAA selection primer

Virginia’s Kylie Towbin won the women’s 3-meter event on day 1 of the Zone A Championships to make a return trip to NCAAs.

Towbin, a senior, won convincingly in Zone A, besting the field by more than 50 points. She won this event at Zones last year, too, but didn’t have a great NCAA showing, fading to 47th of 48 divers on 3-meter. Four of the top eight finishers from last year at NCAAs graduated, though, opening the door for Towbin to perhaps help Virginia out in the team race.

On the men’s side, Virginia got Ian Shelton into NCAAs in 1-meter. Shelton was 35th nationally as a sophomore, and will return as a junior.

Columbia’s Jonathan Suckow won on a big last-round dive, passing up Penn State’s Hector Garcia. 

From a team perspective, Virginia Tech did get one woman and two men into NCAAs.

Current Qualifiers

Simplified Qualifying Procedures

Each zone earns a certain number of NCAA qualifying spots based on how that zone has performed at NCAAs in the past. Each of the three diving events will have its own number of qualifiers from each zone.

If a diver is invited in one event, they can compete at NCAAs in any other event where they finish top 12 in their zone.

Reimbursement vs invited slots don’t mean much from a spectator perspective – both can compete at NCAAs. Reimbursement slots earn NCAA reimbursement to cover the athlete’s trip to NCAAs, while invited athletes are eligible to compete, but would have to travel to the meet on the school’s dime.

Here are the qualifying allotments per zone and the reimbursement spots per zone:

QUALIFYING SPOTS PER ZONE

Reimbursement Spots Per Zone