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.
2019 NCAA ZONE DIVING
- Zones A, B, D, E: Monday, March 11 – Wednesday, March 13
- Zone C: Thursday, March 14 – Saturday, March 16
- Host schools with live results links:
- Revisit our NCAA selection primer
Indiana’s men went 1-2 on 1-meter to open the Zone C Diving Championships, while several top-10 contending teams qualified divers to NCAAs.
Zones C and D tend to be the top Zones with the most NCAA invite spots, and qualifying out of either zone is a good chance of scoring at the big show. Indiana’s James Connor and Andrew Capobianco went 1-2 and should return to the NCAA scoring ranks. Connor was 3rd last year, but champion Michael Hixon graduated and runner-up Steele Johnson turned pro, leaving him as the top returner. Capobianco was 11th last year.
Without Johnson, Purdue’s men still did well, qualifying two men on day 1. Greg Duncan was third and Joseph Cifelli fifth. Duncan missed scoring last year for UNC on 1-meter but should be in the hunt this time around based on graduations ahead of him. Cifelli was 16th at NCAAs a year ago. Ohio State’s men got three divers in, as did Indiana. And Michigan qualified two men.
For the women, Purdue led with three qualifiers, including 3-meter champion Emily Bretscher. She struggled to 39th in this event as a freshman at NCAAs last year, but a Zone title should bode well for her scoring chances. Purdue also qualified returning NCAA scorer Morgan Meixner and Emily Meaney, who was a platform-only qualifier last year.
Indiana qualified one woman: last year’s 10th-place finisher Jessica Parratto. Meanwhile Ohio State got Genevieve Angerame in, Kentucky qualified Kyndal Knight, Louisville got Michaela Sliney and Notre Dame qualified Annie Wiese. Each of those programs could conceivably be competing for a top 20 spot, and a handful of diving points would go a long ways towards that end.
Current Qualifiers
Simplified Qualifying Procedures
Each zone earns a certain number of NCAA qualifying spots based on how that zone has performed at NCAAs in the past. Each of the three diving events will have its own number of qualifiers from each zone.
If a diver is invited in one event, they can compete at NCAAs in any other event where they finish top 12 in their zone.
Reimbursement vs invited slots don’t mean much from a spectator perspective – both can compete at NCAAs. Reimbursement slots earn NCAA reimbursement to cover the athlete’s trip to NCAAs, while invited athletes are eligible to compete, but would have to travel to the meet on the school’s dime.
Here are the qualifying allotments per zone and the reimbursement spots per zone:
QUALIFYING SPOTS PER ZONE
| WOMEN’S | 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | MEN’S | 1M | 3M | PLATFORM |
| Zone A | 6 | 5 | 5 | Zone A | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 9 | 8 | 6 | Zone B | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| Zone C | 9 | 8 | 12 | Zone C | 11 | 8 | 8 |
| Zone D | 9 | 12 | 9 | Zone D | 9 | 11 | 9 |
| Zone E | 8 | 8 | 9 | Zone E | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Reimbursement Spots Per Zone
| Women | Men | |
| Zone A | 5 | 5 |
| Zone B | 6 | 7 |
| Zone C | 10 | 8 |
| Zone D | 8 | 10 |
| Zone E | 11 | 5 |