Though we’re not DiveDove, we do dabble in diving coverage, and as diving can have a major impact on the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, we cover NCAA Zone Diving – mainly through the lens of how national diving qualifiers could impact the team points battles later this month.
2018 NCAA ZONE DIVING
- Zones A, B, D, E: Monday, March 5 – Wednesday, March 7
- Zone C: Thursday, March 8 – Saturday, March 10
- Host schools:
- Zone A: Rutgers University
- Zone B: University of Tennessee
- Zone C: Ohio State University
- Zone D: University of Minnesota
- Zone E: Northern Arizona University
- NCAA selection primer
Though they can’t match national rival Texas’s three NCAA qualifying divers, the California men will have two competing in Minneapolis, with Jonathan Robinson scoring the last qualifying spot in Zone E on the final night.
Robinson joins Connor Callahan on the Cal NCAA team, bringing them right up to their roster cap of 18.
Stanford’s Theodore Miclau won platform on a great night for the Cardinal men. Tarek Abdelghany was fourth and those two will represent Stanford at NCAAs.
On the women’s side, Madison Sthamann won for Hawaii, earning herself an NCAA bid. UCLA’s Eloise Belanger was second for the third-straight event.
QUALIFYING CHART
Athletes in bold have earned NCAA reimbursement.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Sharae Zheng, NEV | Dashiell Enos, USC |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Sharae Zheng, NEV | Youssef Selim, ASU |
| 3 | Platform Champ | Madison Sthamann, HAWA | Theodore Miclau, STAN |
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Eloise Belanger, UCLA | Tarek Abdelghany, STAN |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Eloise Belanger, UCLA | Johan Sandell, HAWA |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | Eloise Belanger, UCLA | Scotia Mullin, WYO |
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Kassidy Cook STAN | Henry Fusaro, USC |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Frida Kaellgren, ASU | Dylan Marin, USC |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | Delaney Schnell, ARIZ | Dashiell Enos, USC |
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Ashley McCool, ASU | Youssef Selim, ASU |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Kassidy Cook, STAN | Dashiell Enos, USC |
| 12 | Platform 4th | Mara Aiacoboae, ASU | Tarek Abdelghany, STAN |
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Alexandra Caplan, SDSU | Theodore Miclau, STAN |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Zoe Lei, NEV | Nathan Gonzalez, BYU |
| 15 | Platform 5th | Karla Contreras, WYO | Johan Sandell, HAWA |
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Karla Contreras, WYO | Johan Sandell, HAWA |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Delaney Schnell, ARIZ | — |
| 18 | Platform 6th | Sharae Zheng, NEV | Youssef Selim, ASU |
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Frida Kaellgren, ASU | Connor Callahan, CAL |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | Ashley McCool, ASU | — |
| 21 | Platform 7th | Madison Witt, USC | Jonathan Robinson, CAL |
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | Mykayla Fielding, UNLV | — |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | Phoebe Lamay, CAL | — |
| 24 | Platform 8th | Carly Souza, USC | — |
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | Delaney Schnell, ARIZ | — |
| 26 | 1-meter 9th | Karla Contreras, WYO | — |
There are five zone meets spread across the country that allow divers to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Based on performances at the previous NCAAs each zone earns a set number of qualifying spots.NCAA Diving QUALIFYING PROCEDURES
Take a look at the qualifying spots for each zone and each event:
WOMEN
| WOMEN | ELIGIBILITY | ||
| 1m | 3m | Platform | |
| Zone A | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Zone B | 7 | 7 | 9 |
| Zone C | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| Zone D | 11 | 9 | 9 |
| Zone E | 9 | 9 | 8 |
MEN
| MEN | ELIGIBILITY | ||
| 1m | 3m | Platform | |
| Zone A | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Zone B | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Zone C | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Zone D | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| Zone E | 5 | 7 | 7 |
A priority chart determines who gets the reimbursement spots. The first priority spot is taken by the winner of each event beginning with the 3-meter champ, followed by the 1-meter champ and then the platform champ. If an athlete wins two events, they will still only take up one slot which means the NCAA will keep adding rows to this chart until the zone meet reimbursement quota is met.
According to the rules set in 2015 that allowed more divers into the meet, any diver who lands in the qualifying spots for their zone earns a spot to compete in the NCAA Championships. If the diver earns eligibility in one event, they can automatically compete in any of the other two events at NCAAs as long as they finished in the top 12 in their zone in that event.
The NCAA made a distinction between “eligible” and “reimbursed” athletes. Divers qualifying outside of the reimbursement spots will not have their travel, lodging, or meet expenses covered by the NCAA. Instead the individual school must decide if they’re willing to pay the bill themselves to give that diver an opportunity to participate in the NCAA Championships.
| REIMBURSEMENT | ||
| Women | Men | |
| Zone A | 4 | 4 |
| Zone B | 6 | 7 |
| Zone C | 10 | 10 |
| Zone D | 12 | 9 |
| Zone E | 9 | 5 |
I guess I see how this system can add more divers to the NCAA. If I read the above information correctly, there are 9 guaranteed spots for the women from zone E with up to 26 possible spots which lead to 15 qualified divers (I would assume that all schools would be interested in sending swimmers/divers that have qualified even if they have to pay for them).
Is there ever any talk of separating the sport of diving so that it does not affect the results of the completely different sport of swimming? If not, why not?
Should competitive cheerleading scores affect the outcome of football games? Of course not.
Not the greatest argument, but Swimming and Diving both belong to the same international Federation, don’t think Football and Cheerleading belong to the same international federation.
Swimming and diving have been part of the same competitions/championships for well over 100 years I think.
I do think that there has been talked about separating now and then but never anything serious.
Separate quotas could make sense though, or at least squads that have hit their limit could be allowed to expand by one additional diver as an earned bonus. Kind of like what they did with Olympic ice skating, where based on how a country scored at the World Championships, they could earn one more spot in the Olympics (from 2 to 3).
Good sign for Cal men
What does this mean for the Stanford women? Since they only qualified 1 diver? I’m assuming they still have to seat a qualified swimmer out because of the 18 athletes cap as they are at 18.5 with Cook?
Yes I assume they won’t leave an Olympian diver at home. Tough to pick which swimmer to leave behind though.
There is another point. Coaches leaving the divers off the squad in place of a qualifying swimmer would constitute a repudiation of the entire diving program in place of 1/18th of the swimming representation. This would not be a good recipe for harmony and mutual support between swimming and diving coaches, trainers, etc. I assume that if the Cal men, who qualified 17 swimmers, had one more swimmer qualify, the lowest seeded swimmer would have to stay home to make room for their 2 diving qualifiers on the NCAA billet.
Hard to say… 11 of Cal’s swimmers are already seeded inside the top 16, with two more seeded 17th and three more inside the top 20. Their swimmer with the lowest seed in his top event is Kyle Coan, who is 22nd in the 200 free. Meanwhile their top diver was at NCAAs last year and took 46th on 1-meter, 37th on 3-meter and 22nd on platform.
If they had to make a choice (as Stanford does), it would ultimately come down to who has the best shot to score NCAA points. I don’t think swimming vs diving would factor into it at all, unless it was a choice between two potentially scoring divers vs one potentially scoring swimmer.
Agree with all this, except that I doubt Stanford is too worried whether they win by 400 vs. 420 points!
Ha. Good point!
Yes, that would be a tough decision that Cal fortunately does not have to make. Especially with Kyle Coan a senior achieving his first individual NCAA invite this year.
Kyle made it to NCAA as a sophomore in the 200 free
Based on your argument, Cook is more likely to score for Stanford than the lowest seeded swimmer with an invite. I don’t envy the coaching staff dealing with the decision making or breaking the news, nor do I envy the swimmer who would love to attend their first NCAA championship.
Oh, Cook will absolutely be added to the roster. She was 3rd on 3-meter last year at NCAAs and scored 27 points overall. That’s a no-brainer compared to five women seeded outside the top 16 in swimming. The probable casualties are Katie Glavinovich (33rd in 400 IM) or Lauren Green (32nd in the 200 fly). Grace Zhao is their second-best breaststroker, so she probably has value as a relay alternate. Lindsey Engel is 17th in the 200 fly and close to scoring. Hannah Kukurugya is 20th in the 200 fly and maybe another potential roster cut.