Swimming: Divers Head to Zone Meet
March 11, 2010 02:51 PM | General
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
March 10, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University diving team is sending three representatives to this year’s NCAA Zone “A” Diving Championships in Piscataway, N.J., from March 12-14. Seniors Brandon Robinson and Ashley Malik, along with sophomore Matt O’Neill will all be representing the Mountaineers, the most divers to qualify in school history.
“All three have continued to grow throughout the year and qualifying for zones is just a testament to the hard work they have all put in,” diving coach Liza Marianni said. “The competition is good for any diver because they are diving against the best divers in the northeast region.”
There will be 42 men representing 23 different colleges, while there are 46 women represented by 24 schools.
The men’s 3-meter and women’s 1-meter will be held on Friday starting at 1 p.m. The groups will then switch boards on Saturday with a noon start.
Divers must qualify through a separate meet instead of just meeting a set standard like swimmers. Since diving is subjectively scored, these zone meets drastically reduce the impact that any given set of diving coaches scoring diving at dual meets can have on the NCAA meet by forcing zone-cut divers to compete against each other regionally.
There are five different zones in the NCAA and 66 schools in Zone “A.” The Zone “A” championships will be held at Rutgers in the Rutgers Aquatic Center. Results will be posted on www.divemeets.com.
