The Texas Longhorn men continue to roll toward an NCAA title defense, adding a third NCAA-qualifying diver on the second day of the Zone D Championships.
This time it was Sean O’Brien who added his name to the NCAA qualifying list for Texas, joining Mark Anderson and Cory Bowersox, who both qualified yesterday and doubled up on qualifying performances today.
Their chief rivals Cal have no divers qualified as of yet, and neither do NC State, ranked second based on the swimming psych sheet scores.
Minnesota also continued to stack its NCAA roster, adding one more male and one more female diver. Yu Zhou won her second event with the 3-meter springboard, remaining perfect at the meet so far. Meanwhile Lexi Tenebaum earned an NCAA bid in 4th, and Manny Pollard joined the list on the men’s side in 5th.
Texas A&M’s Sam Thornton won the men’s 1-meter in a great day for the Aggies, host of the Zone D meet. He earned a new NCAA bid as well as women’s 3-meter runner-up Madison Hudkins.
The full list of qualifiers is below. 7 women and 8 men will earn NCAA reimbursement out of Zone D, and the rest of the names on the list are eligible to compete at NCAAs on their school’s budget.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Yu Zhou, MINN | Mark Anderson, TX |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Sam Thornton, A&M | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Madison Hudkins, A&M | Matt Barnard, MINN |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Elizabeth Cui, LSU | Cory Bowersox, TX |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Cassie Weil, LSU | Clark Thomas, MIZZ |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Meghan O’Brien, TX | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Lexi Tenebaum, MINN | Dylan Zoe, MINN |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Jessica Ramberg, MINN | Sean O’Brien, TX |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | ||
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Anna Filipcic, NEB | Manny Pollard, MINN |
| 15 | Platform 5th | ||
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Nicole Gillis, AIR | Bryce Klein, SMU |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Meghan Houston, TX | |
| 18 | Platform 6th | ||
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Tyler Henschel, A&M | |
| 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 | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement. Athletes who have doubled up on qualifying spots are noted with a line through their lower priority slot.)
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.