Virginia Tech’s men added three divers to their NCAA roster on day 1 of the NCAA Zone A Championships in Annapolis, Maryland.
We’ve run through the full NCAA qualifying procedures at the bottom of this post, but the new NCAA selection process means we know which divers have qualified at this point, but will have to wait for the next two days of diving to know which divers will earn reimbursement from the NCAA.
Virginia Tech led with three divers qualified after taking 3rd, 4th and 5th on 3-meter for the men. Penn State’s Hector Garcia won that event, one of two Nittany Lions to earn an NCAA bid. John Crow was second for Penn State.
James Madison’s Olivia Lehman won the women’s 1-meter, while Rutgers qualified a pair of divers in 2nd and 3rd.
The full qualifying list is below. At this point, Garcia, Crow, Lehman and Rutgers Addison Walkowiak are locked in for NCAA reimbursement status, as 5 women and 4 men will earn that honor out of Zone A:
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Hector Garcia, PSU | |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Olivia Lehman, JMU | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | John Crow, PSU | |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Addison Walkowiak, RUT | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Mauro Silva, VT | |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Alyssa Black, RUT | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Eduardo Castro, VT | |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Meme Sharp, PITT | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Benjamin Schiesl, VT | |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Rebecca Corbett, UVA | — |
| 15 | Platform 5th | — | |
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | — | |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | — | — |
| 18 | Platform 6th | — |
(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