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
Virginia’s Kylie Towbin completed a sweep of all three diving events at the Zone A Championships, winning platform on day 3.
Though Zone A doesn’t have any returning NCAA scorers on platform, Towbin is showing great improvement in her junior year. She was 26th at NCAAs last year on platform, and only three of the top 16 have graduated. But Towbin will dive all three boards at NCAAs, and the Virginia women could get at least a few-point boost somewhere if Towbin has a good round.
On the other hand, UVA’s other NCAA diver from last year, Sydney Dusel, didn’t compete at all at Zones and won’t return to NCAAs.
There were only 5 platform spots up for grabs on the women’s side, so there weren’t many new qualifiers. Navy did add two divers to NCAAs: Meghan Gerdes was second and Hannah Montau third. Pitt’s Amy Read is also a new qualifier, taking fourth. Gerdes and Read just missed the cut on 3-meter on day 1, but will now be able to dive that event at NCAAs as well.
On the men’s side, Virginia added a second diver: Walker Creedon was third on platform. He’d missed the 3-meter cut yesterday, but now can compete in both 3-meter and platform at NCAAs. He joins Ian Shelton on the NCAA roster for UVA.
Princeton’s Colten Young also broke through. He was just outside the invite cut on both springboards, but took second on platform and will contest all three at NCAAs.
Virginia Tech’s Noah Zawadzki won the event, adding a third NCAA event.
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
| WOMEN’S | 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | MEN’S | 1M | 3M | PLATFORM |
| Zone A | 6 | 5 | 5 | Zone A | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 9 | 8 | 6 | Zone B | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| Zone C | 9 | 8 | 12 | Zone C | 11 | 8 | 8 |
| Zone D | 9 | 12 | 9 | Zone D | 9 | 11 | 9 |
| Zone E | 8 | 8 | 9 | Zone E | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Reimbursement Spots Per Zone
| Women | Men | |
| Zone A | 5 | 5 |
| Zone B | 6 | 7 |
| Zone C | 10 | 8 |
| Zone D | 8 | 10 |
| Zone E | 11 | 5 |
Is Dusel injured?
Yes she is injured but will be back next year….. but my question is if someone who is qualified is at a school that says “no we will not pay for you to go” what happens then? Obviously a school like Virginia tech or Virginia will pay for that athlete but what about the Navy diver? They can be controlled by higher up powers, and it doesn’t seem odd to think diving could be cut or “unfunded”,… could they pay their own way though and still participate?? Say if funding were taken away from their team and placed towards a certain barrier project… could said diver still go if they paid their own way?