Indiana Qualifies 2 Men, 2 Women For NCAAs At Zone C Day 1

2017 NCAA ZONE DIVING

• Zones A, B, D & E: Monday, March 6 – Wednesday, March 8
• Zone C: Thursday, March 9 – Saturday, March 11
• Host schools:
  • Zone A: Virginia Tech
  • Zone B: Auburn
  • Zone C: Indiana
  • Zone D: Missouri
  • Zone E: Northern Arizona
• NCAA selection primer

The Indiana Hoosiers started out the Zone C Championships hot, qualifying 4 total divers for the NCAA Championships on day 1.

Zone C results

Topping the list is Michael Hixon, who won the men’s 1-meter and earned NCAA reimbursement status. He’ll be joined on the men’s side by James Connor, who finished 4th with just 5 men earning NCAA eligible spots in the 1-meter event.

Jessica Parratto was second for the women, with Michal Bower taking third and both earning NCAA reimbursement.

Miami (OH)’s Pei Lin won on 3-meter for the women. She’s the returning NCAA runner-up in that event.

Purdue also had a nice day, with 2 men and 2 women qualifying. Steele Johnson was second for the men to lead that group.

In terms of NCAA team points, a number of potential top 10 programs added divers on day 1 of Zone C. Michigan’s women, coming off a Big Ten title, qualified a pair of divers. Louisville’s women got a diver in, as did Kentucky. On the men’s side, Ohio State also qualified Zhipeng Zeng. 

(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

MEN

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.

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.