The Nevada and UCLA women and the Utah and Stanford men each added two NCAA qualifiers on the opening night of the 2016 Zone E Diving Championships.
Nevada went 1-2 on the women’s side, with Krysta Palmer taking the 1-meter win. Sharae Zheng was second. Both are into NCAAs and both have locked up reimbursement slots.*
*Read up on the full details of the NCAA selection process at the bottom of this page.
Utah kept pace on the men’s side, going 1-2 with Jacob Crayne winning 3-meter and Josiah Purss taking second.
The full qualifiers list is below. On the women’s side, Palmer Zheng and UCLA’s Maria Polyakova have all wrapped up reimbursement slots, and UCLA’s Eloise Belanger will get one if any diver doubles up on two of the top 10 priority spots.
For the men, Crayne and Purss will get NCAA reimbursement, while Arizona’s Rafael Quintero is just on the outside but likely to sneak in like Belanger.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Jacob Crayne, UTAH | |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Krysta Palmer, NEV | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Josiah Purss, UTAH | |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Sharae Zheng, NEV | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Rafael Quintero, AZ | |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Maria Polyakova, UCLA | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Bradley Christensen, STAN | |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Eloise Belanger, UCLA | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Tarek Abdelghany, STAN | |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | ||
| 15 | Platform 5th | ||
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | — | — |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | ||
| 18 | Platform 6th | ||
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | — | — |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | ||
| 21 | Platform 7th | ||
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | — | — |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | ||
| 24 | Platform 8th | ||
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | — | |
| 26 | 1-meter 9th | — | |
| 27 | Platform 9th | — | |
| 28 | 3-meter 10th | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement.)
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