Parratto Wins Again; Women’s Contenders Expand Rosters At Zone C Day 3

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

Indiana’s Jessica Parratto won her second-straight event on the women’s side, capping a dominant Zone Championships. Parratto won on platform, beating two-time defending NCAA champ Olivia Rosendahl of Northwestern. Parratto also beat Rosendahl at Big Tens, though Parratto has won Big Tens the past two years only for Rosendahl to take the win at NCAAs.

Purdue’s Emily Meaney was already qualified through 3-meter, but a second-place finish on platform is big for her: Meaney was 7th at NCAAs on platform as a fresman, but faded to 27th last year.

Rosendahl was 4th and will qualify to compete at NCAAs. In between was Purdue’s Emily Bretscher, the 3-meter zone champ.

From a team perspective, Michigan got returning NCAA scorer Christy Cutshaw into the meet. She hadn’t yet qualified. Purdue’s Maggie Merriman qualified, bringing the Boilermakers to four female qualifiers. Ohio State qualified Lexie Barker, bringing them to 3 women. Kentucky and Louisville both added second divers, and Illinois qualified one.

On the men’s side, Purdue’s Brandon Loschiavo broke up an Indiana sweep, taking the platform title. His teammate Benjamin Bramley was second. Both were new NCAA qualifiers today after not making a qualifying spot in the first two days.

Purdue now has four male divers qualified, even without star Steele Johnson, who had surgery and turned pro earlier this year.

The other new qualifier on the men’s side was IUPUI’s Krisztian Somhegyi, who took 8th.

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