Gator Divers Travel to Georgia NCAA Zone B Diving Championships
Friday, March 6, 2015 | Women's Swimming & Diving
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The University of Florida men's and women's diving teams will travel to Athens, Ga. to compete in the NCAA Zone Diving Championships that run from Mon., March 9 through Wed., March 11. The Gators will have six divers compete as they look to qualify for the 2015 NCAA Championships.
The first day of competition will feature the men's one-meter board as the men will dive at 11:00 a.m. and the women's three-meter will go at 3:30 p.m. On Tuesday, the teams will compete in the women's three-meter at 11:00 a.m. and the men's one-meter at 3:30 p.m. The week will conclude on Wednesday with the platform beginning at 10:00 a.m. for the women and 2:15 p.m. for the men.
Just a few days ago, Florida had 11 women swimmers qualify to compete in two weeks at the NCAA Championships, which include six returners from last year's meet. The list of qualifying men's swimmers is expected to be released soon.
The women's NCAA meet will be held from Mar. 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C., and the men's championships will be held a week later in Iowa City, Iowa (Mar. 26-28).
Who's Going:
Women
Juniors: Delaney Dye, Julia Hackett, Emily Mosher, Kahlia Warner
Freshman: Lexie Martorana
Men
Redshirt Junior: Zach Hernandez
Redshirt Freshman: Dalton Goss
2015 SEC Championships Rewind:
Kahlia Warner: The Queensland, Australia native claimed two SEC Women's Diver of the Week awards throughout the season but recorded her best meet of the season at the SEC Championships. On day four of the SEC meet, Warner finished second overall and set a school record on the women's platform dive with a score of 326.45 points.
Delaney Dye: The Tallahassee, Fla. native was perhaps the surprise of the day for Florida on day four of the SEC Championships as she qualified for the women's platform finals with a personal-best score of 241.95. In the finals, Dye finished eighth with a mark of 238.40. Her eighth place finish marked her highest career finish in any event at the SEC Championships.
Coaches Corner:
Diving Coach Dale Schultz
His thoughts on the meet overall…
“I'm really excited about us heading to Georgia next week. I think we gained a lot of confidence at the SEC Championships, both with our men and our women. Our divers have been training hard all season and especially since we got back from Auburn. But, we have one job and that's to go in there and do what we've done all year, and that's just continue to improve and have good performances. My expectations are high but I expect to go there, compete well and represent the University of Florida very well and see what happens. ”
On Kahlia Warner…
“I really think that her platform performance at the SEC Championships helped her gain a lot of confidence. You see that right now in her training as she just looks like a totally different person. This is going to be a good meet for her.”
Qualifying for the NCAA Championships:
The top five female and top four male divers from each event at the meet will be eligible to compete at the NCAA Championships. Additional place finishers in each event at each zone will be eligible based on the number of student-athletes from that zone who finished in the top 16 in that event at the previous year's NCAA Championships.
Number of Qualifying Spots for Zone B:
Women:
1M = Top 10 Finishers
3M = Top 7 Finishers
Platform = Top 8 Finishers
Men:
1M = Top 9 Finishers
3M = Top 8 Finishers
Platform = Top 8 Finishers
Diving Into The NCAA Championships:
Redshirt junior Zach Hernandez and redshirt freshman Dalton Goss will each try to become the first UF male diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Mike Lewark accomplished the feat in 2012. Prior to Lewark, Jonathan Wilcox was the last to compete at the men's NCAA Championships in 2006.
On the women's side, the group of five female divers will look to become the first UF female diver to qualify since 2011 when Monica Dodson advanced past the Zone Diving Regional.
Next Up:
The women's NCAA Championships will take place from March 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn., and the men will compete a week later in Austin from March 27-29.
NCAA Championships Coverage:
ESPN3 will stream live the championships final sessions Friday and Saturday. Thursday's sessions (morning and evening), along with the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live via the link on the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving sports specific page on www.ncaa.com. Coverage of the championships will also be broadcast via tape delay on ESPNU at 6 p.m. Eastern time, Tuesday, March 31.
Follow the Gators:
Gator fans are encouraged to follow the swimming and diving program via Twitter or Facebook. A complete recap of each day's events will be available on www.Gatorzone.com.
