Georgia Women Qualify NCAA Diver On Day 2 of Zone B

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

Georgia’s women will have a diver competing at NCAAs: Mckensi Austin qualified for NCAAs with an 8th-place finish on 1-meter at the Zone B Championships.

Austin competed last year as a sophomore, but only made NCAAs on 3-meter, where she placed 27th. She was 11th in the zone on 3-meter yesterday, and though that didn’t earn an invite, it did keep her eligible to enter 3-meter at NCAAs if she qualified outright on a different board. Her qualification today gives her two NCAA events with platform still to come tomorrow.

Miami’s Alicia Blagg won the event. The redshirt sophomore was already qualified with a runner-up finish yesterday, but should now be in the hunt to score at NCAAs in two events.

In addition, Florida junior Brooke Madden qualified for NCAAs in a second event. She was a 1-meter scorer last year at NCAAs, and qualified for a return trip today by placing second.

The Tennessee men added a third diver to their NCAA team. Matthew Wade was 5th on 3-meter, taking an NCAA invite spot. His teammate Colin Zeng won the event, topping last night’s 1-meter winner Briadam Herrera of Miami. Wade and Zeng are both into NCAAs along with Will Hallam, and all three divers can compete in both 1-meter and 3-meter.

Duke’s Nathaniel Hernandez is another new qualifier after taking 4th.

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