The Texas Longhorn men improved their NCAA title repeat hopes, adding two NCAA qualifiers in 3-meter diving on the first night of the 2016 Zone D Championships.
Mark Anderson won the event to book himself an NCAA berth and a reimbursement slot* for the Longhorns. Meanwhile Cory Bowersox took 5th for an NCAA slot of his own.
*You can read up on the particulars of the NCAA selection process at the bottom of the page.
Minnesota led all teams with 4 NCAA qualifiers, two men and two women. Defending NCAA 3-meter champ Yu Zhou won on 1-meter to lead the team, and Matt Barnard was the 3-meter runner-up to also earn a reimbursement slot.
On top of that, seniors Jessica Ramberg and Dylan Zoe also punched their tickets to NCAAs with top-5 finishes.
The full list of qualifiers is below. 7 men and 8 women will ultimately earn reimbursement spots from the NCAA.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Mark Anderson, TX | |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Yu Zhou, MINN | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Matt Barnard, MINN | |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Elizabeth Cui, LSU | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Clark Thomas, MIZZ | |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Meghan O’Brien, TX | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Dylan Zoe, MINN | |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Jessica Ramberg, MINN | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Cory Bowersox, TX | |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Anna Filipcic, NEB | |
| 15 | Platform 5th | ||
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Bryce Klein, SMU | |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Meghan Houston, TX | |
| 18 | Platform 6th | ||
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Tyler Henschel, A&M | |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | — | |
| 21 | Platform 7th | ||
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | — | — |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | — | — |
| 24 | Platform 8th | ||
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement.)
NCAA ZONE QUALIFYING PROCEDURES
From our refresher post, which you can find here.
Divers qualify for the NCAA Championships through Zone Meets spread across the country. Each zone earns a set number of NCAA qualifying spots based on the performances of that Zone at NCAAs in the past.
Here are the qualifying spots for each event in each zone:
Women
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Zone B | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| Zone C | 12 | 7 | 10 |
| Zone D | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| Zone E | 9 | 11 | 9 |
Men
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Zone C | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| Zone D | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Zone E | 8 | 5 | 8 |
Any diver who finishes within the qualifying spots for their zone earns eligibility for the NCAA Championships. Any diver who earns eligibility in one event can compete in any of the other two events at NCAAs, provided they finished inside the top 12 in their zone in that event.
The final wrinkle is a new rule from last season that makes a distinction between “eligible” athletes and “reimbursed” athletes. The NCAA loosened its rules last season to allow more divers into the meet, but divers qualifying under the new rules do not recieve reimbursement from the NCAA for their travel, lodging and meet expenses – that means it’s up to the individual school to decide if they will foot the bill themselves to allow the diver to compete at NCAAs.
Each zone has a set number of reimbursement spots between the three events combined:
| WOMEN | MEN | |
| Zone A | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 8 | 9 |
| Zone C | 11 | 8 |
| Zone D | 7 | 8 |
| Zone E | 10 | 6 |
The spots are determined by a priority chart. The winners of each event have first priority, starting with the 3-meter champ, then the 1-meter champ, then the platform champ. After that, the runners-up are added in the same order. If an athlete wins both 1-meter and 3-meter, they still only take one reimbursement slot, meaning the NCAA will keep adding rows of this chart until the reimbursement quota for that zone is met
