MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Seven members of the West Virginia University diving team will travel to Blacksburg, Virginia, to compete at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, from March 6-8.
Virginia Tech hosts the three-day event at Christiansburg Aquatic Center to determine the region’s entries for the upcoming NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
Live results can be found at
meetcontrol.com. Events are set to begin on Monday, March 6, starting with the women’s 3-meter and the men’s 1-meter at noon, ET. Competition picks back up on Tuesday, March 7, with the men’s 3-meter and the women’s 1-meter, at noon, ET. Competition concludes on Wednesday, March 8, with the women's platform at 11 a.m. ET and the men's platform at 2 p.m. ET.
The seven Mountaineer divers competing at Zones are juniors Logan McHenry and Alex Obendorf, sophomores Austin Smith, Julia Calcut, Averly Hobbs and Madelyn Woods and freshman Gerald Hodges.
“Zones is a different meet than what we had last week at the Big 12 Championship,” said WVU diving coach Michael Grapner. “This is a much bigger diving event than we have seen all year, but based on the performance from last week, I think the divers are ready. One big factor to help with our success is having so many divers here this week. Three girls and four boys gives us strength in numbers. With so many divers in the competition, it’s important for the divers to focus only on their dives, and do it one dive at a time.
“At this point in the season they have done all the training and know how to do the dives very well, so now they just need to set the cruise control and put all of the early mornings, long practices and hard work into action.”
Zone A consists of schools in 13 states, plus Washington D.C.: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
During the regular season, the women had to score at least 265 points to qualify for Zones on 1-meter, 280 points on 3-meter and 225 points to compete on platform. The men had to attain scores of at least 300 points on 1-meter meter, 320 points on 3-meter and 300 points on platform in order to advance to the zone championships.
The top four men’s divers on 1-meter and platform and the top five on 3-meter will qualify for the NCAA Championship, while the women will advance the top five divers on 1-meter and the top six on 3-meter and platform to the NCAA meet.
At the 2017 Big 12 Championship on Feb. 22-25, Obendorf set a WVU record on men’s platform, scoring a 332.70 in the prelims to advance to the finals, where he won bronze with a score of 324.75.
Last year, nine Mountaineers qualified to compete at the 2016 NCAA Zone A Championships in Annapolis, Maryland – Lindsay Schmidt, Michael Proietto, McHenry, Obendorf, Hobbs, Calcut, Woods, Smith and Emmott Blitch.
Proietto advanced to the finals on 3-meter, 1-meter and platform. On the 3-meter springboard, he placed 17th in the prelims with a score of 298.85 to advance to the finals, where he finished 14th overall with a 316.3 and a combined score of 615.15. Proietto advanced to his second final on 1-meter after placing 15th in the prelims (285.40). He placed eighth in the finals with a combined score of 598.10. Proietto advanced to the finals on platform after placing 11th in the prelims (278.05). He finished 12th in the finals with a combined score of 519.85.
Obendorf notched a top-10 finish in the prelims on 1-meter, placing ninth with a score of 296.60. In the finals, he placed 10th with a 298.70 and a combined score of 595.30.
For the women, Calcut advanced to the finals on 3-meter and on platform. Thanks to her prelims score of 253.95 and a 16th-place finish on 3-meter, she advanced to the finals where she placed 16th overall with a score of 251.35 and a combined score of 505.30. On platform, Calcut placed 12th with a score of 385.85.
