2024 NCAA Zone E Diving: Cal Men Qualify Two Divers, UCLA’s Hallaselka Leads Women’s Field

2024 NCAA ZONE E CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 11-13, 2024
• Wall Aquatic Center — Flagstaff, Arizona
• Results
• Qualifying Process

The final piece of the NCAA Championship qualification puzzle is the Zone Diving Championships, which are running from five sites this week across the country.

• Zone A Results
• Zone B Results
• Zone C Results
• Zone D Results
• Zone E Results

The Zone E Championships wrapped up on Wednesday from Northern Arizona University’s Wall Aquatic Center, finalizing the divers who have punched their ticket to the NCAA Championships later this month.

Of course, teams near or at the roster limit can scratch divers if they choose to, though that only applies to a few select teams. In the vast majority of cases, qualifying at their respective Zone competition locks in a diver’s NCAA spot.

Note that divers only count as a half a participant in terms of the 18-participant roster cap.

Simplified Qualifying Process:

• The top five female and top four male divers from each event at their respective zone championship automatically qualify for NCAAs.
• Each zone then earns an additional number of qualifying spots in each event based on how it performed at last season’s NCAAs.
• Divers who qualify in one event can also compete in other event(s) at NCAAs provided they finished in the top 12 at their respective Zone meet.

ZONE E ALLOCATIONS

WOMEN’S ZONE E RECAP

Finnish freshman Lauren Hallaselka made her presence known at the Zone E Championships, as the UCLA diver won the women’s 1-meter and 3-meter events going away to pencil herself in as a contender at NCAAs.

On 1-meter, Hallaselka topped USC fifth-year Nike Agunbiade by 21 points, and on 3-meter, Hallaselka was over 57 points clear of the runner-up, Utah’s Swedish freshman Emilia Nilsson Garip.

Agunbiade went on to win on platform, having finished 5th in the event at NCAAs last season. She also scored on 3-meter last season, but did not compete in that event at the Zone E Championships.

Nevada’s Melissa Mirafuentes and the Utah duo of Holly Waxman and Kathryn Grant were the three divers that qualified to compete in every event at NCAAs.

Stanford, which figures to feature prominently in the team race at NCAAs, qualified two divers, junior Lauren Burch and sophomore Emilie Moore. Burch was the team’s lone diver at nationals last year, taking 28th on 3-meter and 33rd on platform.

Women’s Zone E Qualifiers – By Event

Women’s Zone E Qualifiers – Full List

*Events in which the diver didn’t finish in a designated spot but qualified by virtue of a top-12 finish.

MEN’S ZONE E RECAP

Stanford junior Jack Ryan swept the men’s springboard events, dominating on 3-meter on Monday as he emerged with the victory by 128 points.

Ryan, who was 3rd on 1-meter at last season’s NCAAs, followed up by winning that event on Sunday over USC’s Shangfei Wang, who was 5th in the event at the 2023 NCAAs.

On platform, USC sophomore Laurent Gosselin-Paradis edged out Cal freshman and fellow Canadian Geoffrey Vavitsas for the victory.

Gosselin-Paradis, who was 18th on 1-meter at NCAAs as a freshman, followed up on his platform win by qualifying on 1-meter, and also finished in the top-12 on 3-meter to earn a spot in all three events at NCAAs.

Joining him in qualifying for all events was Cal Baptist’s Gael Jimenez, Arizona’s Gage Dubois and Cal’s Joshua Thai.

At the 2023 NCAAs, Thai was Cal’s lone diver, contributing three points to their national title victory after placing 14th on platform.

Men’s Zone E Qualifiers – By Event

Men’s Zone E Qualifiers – Full List

*Events in which the diver didn’t finish in a designated spot but qualified by virtue of a top-12 finish.