WVU Divers Conclude Zone Championships

Wednesday, March 13

Annapolis, Md.

1:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

NCAA Zone A Diving Championships

Photo by: Liz Parke

March 13, 2019 05:39 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

Results

By: Joe Mitchin

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Six members of the West Virginia University men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished competition at the 2019 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, at Lejeune Hall, in Annapolis, Maryland, on Wednesday.

Freshman Nick Cover earned a seventh-place finish on men's platform with a combined score of 609.70. Two other Mountaineers competed in the event, as freshman PJ Lenz took ninth place with a combined score of 524.35, while redshirt freshman Jacob Cardinal Tremblay took 11th with a 462.50 combined.

On the women's side, sophomore Callie Smith earned a trip to the finals in women's platform. She finished in 18th place with a combined score of 347.00. Freshmen Camille Burt (176.95) and Emma Longley (173.35) also competed in the event's preliminary round, finishing 21st and 22nd, respectively.

A total of 13 men and 24 women competed on platform on Wednesday. All 13 men and the top-18 women advanced to the finals. The top-five women's and top-four men's combined scores earned qualification to the 2019 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

"It has been a great season, and I'm so proud of all the divers this week," WVU diving coach Michael Grapner said. "Each of them have accomplished personal goals and made significant improvements throughout the year. Today's platform event was one of the most competitive events we have been a part of. The men did an outstanding job competing against all the other teams who have platform. Nick was consistent today and did a great job improving into finals.

"The ladies did great today, too. Callie was consistent and made the right corrections to sneak into finals, then made improvements in the finals. Altogether, this was a very good meet for us this week."

Cover qualified eighth with a prelims score of 294.85 before adding a score of 314.85 in the finals for seventh overall. Lenz was ninth after prelims, registering a 249.85. He scored 274.50 in the finals. For Tremblay, his prelims score of 246.60 was good for 10th place before he added a 215.90 in the finals for 11th overall.

Smith was 16th after prelims with a score of 182.75 in the women's competition. She added a 164.25 in the finals for 18th overall.

Lenz earned finals appearances in all three events this week. On Monday, he placed 13th on 1-meter with a combined score of 583.45. The Prior Lake, Minnesota, native followed it up with a 16th-place finish on 3-meter on Tuesday, scoring a combined 587.55.

Cardinal Tremblay, Cover and senior Averly Hobbs registered a pair of trips to the finals this week. Along with Wednesday's performance, Cardinal Tremblay also finished 17th on 1-meter on Monday with a combined score of 528.70. Cover earned a 14th-place finish on 3-meter on Tuesday with a 596.40 combined score.

For Hobbs, she took 10th place (544.20) on women's 3-meter on Monday and 17th (472.75) on 1-meter on Tuesday. Additionally, senior Julia Calcut placed 17th overall on 3-meter with a combined score of 505.80, while senior Madelyn Woods finished 18th on 1-meter with a 438.35 combined.

In all, nine WVU divers competed at Zones this week, the most since 2015-16.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUSwimDive on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.