Minnesota sophomore Yu Zhou completed a sweep of the women’s events at the 2016 Zone D Championships with a platform win, and her Gophers added one more diver to NCAAs to bring their roster to 7.
Zhou, the defending NCAA champ on 3-meter, won all three boards at Zones, punctuated by an 11-point win on platform. Her teammate Lexi Tenebaum was second as a Minnesota team that’s a little thinner in the pool this year crushed the diving qualification.
Zhou, Tenenbaum and Jessica Ramberg are all in for the women, and all earned repeat qualifying spots on platform. Matt Barnard, Manny Pollard and Dylan Zoe were all already qualified for the men and also earned qualifying spots on platform, plus Alan LeBlang joined the roster with a 7th-place platform finish.
Texas’s Mark Anderson added his second win of the meet on platform, and the Longhorns look primed to repeat as men’s NCAA champs after qualifying 3 men, all under NCAA reimbursement status.
The final qualifying lists are below. 7 women and 8 men will earn NCAA reimbursement, and the rest of the names are eligible to compete at NCAAs on their school’s dime.*
*The full NCAA selection procedures are spelled out at the bottom of this story.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Yu Zhou, MINN | Mark Anderson, TX |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Sam Thornton, A&M | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Madison Hudkins, A&M | Matt Barnard, MINN |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Elizabeth Cui, LSU | Cory Bowersox, TX |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | Lexi Tenenbaum, MINN | Tyler Henschel, A&M |
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Cassie Weil, LSU | Clark Thomas, MIZZ |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Meghan O’Brien, TX | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Sean O’Brien, TX | |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Jessica Ramberg, MINN | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | Madison Sthamann, LSU | Dylan Zoe, MINN |
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | ||
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Anna Filipcic, NEB | Manny Pollard, MINN |
| 15 | Platform 5th | Madeline McKernan, MIZZ | Addison Boschult, IA |
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Nicole Gillis, AIR | Bryce Klein, SMU |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Meghan Houston, TX | |
| 18 | Platform 6th | Alais Kalonji, A&M | Kyle Goodwin, MIZZ |
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Meghan Houston, TX | |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | — | |
| 21 | Platform 7th | Calli Head, IA | Alan LeBlang, MINN |
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | — | |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | — | — |
| 24 | Platform 8th | ||
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | — | |
| 26 | 1-meter 9th | — | — |
| 27 | Platform 9th | Lydia Lehnert, IA | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement. Athletes who have doubled up on qualifying spots are noted with a line through their lower priority slot.)
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.
