2022 Air Force Diving Invite
- February 3-5, 2022
- Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Results
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
Day 1 Recap
USAF ACADEMY– The Utah dive team wrapped up the first day of competition at the Air Force Diving Invite on Thursday night with a huge victory in the newly introduced team event.
“We had a really good day today with some great individual performances and it was highlighted by our men lighting it up in the team event,” head diving coach Richard Marschner said. “The team event really allowed us to feed off each other and the energy in the pool was really high from the competitors and spectators.”
An event that has been run at the Tennessee and UCLA Invite’s earlier this month, the team event consists of 3 divers from each team doing two dives for a total of six dives per team. Within the six dives, two must be done on each event of 1M, 3M and platform. Each team must do one dive from each category (front, back, reverse, inward, twist and armstand).
Junior Luke McDivitt competed in both of the 10M dives during the team event, totaling 60.8 in the first round and 72 in the second. Recently named Pac-12 Men’s Diver of the Week, Tony Chen, earned 55.5 points on the 1M and a 76.5 on the 3M. Freshman Ben Smyth was the third and final diver for the Utes and scored a 55.9 on the 1M and 51.3 on the 3M. Combined, Utah totaled 372 points to take home the victory.
California Baptist captured second (275.5), Denver finished in third (273.55) and BYU placed fourth (268.2). Meet host Air Force placed fifth (266.9) and Wyoming in sixth (265.9).
“We’re looking forward to having this event included at Pac-12’s this year,” Marschner said.
Accompanying the men’s team event Thursday night was the women’s 3M final and men’s 1M final. Chen was the lone representative for Utah in the 1M final and posted his best score of the season totaling 340.15 points.
“Individually Tony had a season best on the 1M and he’s looking great as we head into the homestretch,” stated Marschner.
McDivitt missed out on the advancing to the final but bounced back and made the most of the consolation final finishing first with a score of 304.70.
For the women, freshman Holly Waxman led the Utes scoring a new season-best to place fifth (300.85) in the 3M final as junior Lizzy DeCecco captured seventh.
The dive team is back at it tomorrow morning as the men and women will flip events. Competition is set to begin at 8:00am MT and will conclude later in the night with the men’s 3M, women’s 1M and women’s team event final.
Day 2 Recap
USAF ACADEMY – Utah diving completed day 2 of the Air Force Diving Invitational on Friday night from Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was another successful performance for the women’s squad as they competed in the team event, finishing second behind Wyoming (315.20) with a final score of 304.25.
“Our women had an incredibly strong team event as it was a back and forth contest with a very good Wyoming team,” head coach Richard Marschner said. “It was really fun to be able to see our divers have the opportunity to compete in a true team event like this because we’ve never had that chance before.”
Following the same strategy deployed last night during the men’s team final, Lexi Mills competed in both 10M rounds for Utah and put up a score of 41.85 in the first and 46.4 in the second. Lizzy DeCecco and Holly Waxman traded both the 1M and 3M dives. DeCecco scored a 54.6 in the 3M and followed that with a 49.2 on the 1M. Waxman also totaled 49.2 on the 1M and posted a 63 on the 3M.
BYU finished in third (275.7), California Baptist followed in fourth (263.85) as meet host Air Force (230.85) and Denver (226.5) rounded out the competing schools.
In addition to the women’s team event, both the men’s 3M and women’s 1M finals took place. Fireworks went off during the men’s 3M final as two divers surpassed the 400-point mark. Senior Tony Chen was just short of the 400 mark placing third with a 395.10 and junior Luke McDivitt followed in fourth with a 387.50, his best 3M score of the season. A pair of Aggies from Texas A&M finished 1-2 as Kurtis Mathews took home the event title with a score of 486.95.
“Tony and Luke put together a brilliant 3M final and both were knocking on the door of cracking the 400-point barrier. The men’s 3M final was the best event that’s ever taken place at that pool,” Marschner stated.
Moving to the women’s 1M final, freshman Holly Waxman represented Utah posting a season-best 280.70 for fifth. DeCecco and Mills bounced back in the consolation final as DeCecco captured the win (275.40) and Mills earned third (246.35).
“Molly was very steady and strong on the 1M and we just need to tweak a minor issue on her entries and she’ll be ready for Pac-12’s and beyond,” Marschner said.
Up Next
Utah will continue competition on Saturday, the final day of the event. Action is slated to begin 10:00am MT with the women’s platform prelims and conclude with the men’s platforms finals at 2:30pm MT. Fans can follow the action live on the Air Force YouTube page.
Day 3 Recap
USAF ACADEMY– The Utah diving team capped off the final day of the Air Force Diving Invite by each capturing the win in the platform final on Saturday inside Cadet Natatorium. Both squads had Utes finishing 1-2 as junior Lexi Mills and freshman Ben Smyth led the way earning the title.
Mills had quite the afternoon setting two new personal-bests en route to the victory posting 239.25 in the prelims to top her pervious and followed that up with another sensational performance to beat the record she just set with a score of 277.15. This score moves Mills into fourth all-time at Utah on the platform. Freshman Holly Waxman finished second and also set a new personal-best 253.10 right after she topped her previous record in the prelims (252.30). This jumps Waxman from ninth all-time to fifth, right behind teammate Mills.
“Our platform event was incredible on both the men’s and women’s sides with a huge effort by everyone today,” head coach Richard Marschner said. “Lexi and Holly both put up a top-5 all-time score and now sit at four and five in school history. Lexi has been putting in a lot of work and focus on tower and we debuted another new dive for her. I’m thrilled with her hard work and it’s starting to show in the results.”
On the men’s side, Smyth secured the victory totaling 374.40 points while junior’s Luke McDivitt (337.85) and Jenner Pennock (333.45) placed second and fourth, respectively to round out the Utes. Pennock’s score was a new personal-record.
“Ben and Luke traded places from prelims to finals but both put up two very lists that will place well at Pac-12’s and NCAA Zones,” Marschner said. “Jenner nearly got in there for third and a full sweep of the podium for the men.”
Up Next
The women’s swim and dive team won’t see any more competition until the Pac-12 Championships, Feb. 23-26, while the men’s team will have one more dual-meet on Saturday, Feb. 12, against USC. That meet is set to start at 12:00 pm on Saturday.
Follow the Utes!
For fans of the Utah men’s/women’s swimming and diving programs, follow the Utes on Twitter (@UTAHswimdive), Instagram (@utahswimdive) and Facebook (@UtahUtesSwimDive).
