Stanford Women Qualify Freshman Diver For NCAAs On Day 1 of Zone E

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

The California and Stanford men will both add divers to their NCAA invites this week, with Conor Casey winning men’s 1-meter for Stanford at the Zone E Championships. Connor Callahan was third for Cal.

Zone E is one of the more limited zones in qualifying spots – only four men will be invited through 1-meter. Arizona State’s Youssef Selim and Utah’s Tony Chen are the other two.

Last year at NCAAs, Callahan finished 31st and Selim 32nd in this event. Casey and Chen are both freshmen.

On the women’s side, Stanford gets yet another boost to its repeat title hopes. Freshman diver Carolina Sculti is proving to be the real deal. The NCAA rookie was third on 3-meter and will book a trip to NCAAs. In the process, she beat returning NCAA scorer Eloise Belanger of UCLA, who was fourth. Stanford also got Mia Paulsen in as a repeat NCAA qualifier. She was eighth.

UCLA’s Maria Polyakova won the event. She was an All-American in each of her first three seasons with the Bruins, but redshirted last year. She should be in line to score big at NCAAs.

Second went to Arizona’s Delaney Schnell. She actually competed at NCAAs last year in both 1-meter and platform, but not on 3-meter. Her finish today suggests she should contend to score at NCAAs in this event this time around.

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