Hurricanes Complete First Day of Zone B Diving Championships
ATHENS G.A. – University of Miami junior diver Jenna Dreyer, senior diver Heather Bounds and freshman diver Ruben Ross qualified for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Gabrielsen Natatorium on the campus of the University of Georgia. It marked Dreyer’s and Bounds’ second time qualifying for the NCAA Championship in the women’s three-meter.
The top three men and the top five women today automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. The women will compete March 8-10, while the men’s NCAA meet will be March 15-17.
Dreyer, the 2007 ACC diving champion, turned in a score of 621.00 to finish third behind Auburn’s Corey Gerlauch in the women’s three-meter finals. In the preliminaries, Dreyer also posted a third place mark with a score of 309.15. Dreyer qualified for her first NCAA Championship on the three-meter board as a freshman, March 11, 2005 after she came in second with a score of 539.30.
Bounds will also head to the NCAA Championships after finishing fourth with a score of 595.30 in the finals. Bounds advanced to the NCAA Championships her sophomore year when she finished ninth in the three-meter with a score of 468.35, March 11, 2005. Earlier she captured the fourth place mark in the preliminaries with a score of 305.30.
Ross who captured gold at the ACC championships, made his mark today after finishing second with a score of 700.55 in the men’s one-meter finals behind Terry Horner of in-state rival and ACC foe, Florida State.
With the top-18 divers in the preliminary round advancing to the finals, freshman Brittany Viola was able to move on after placing 17th in the preliminaries with a score of 258.75. In the finals, the Orlando, Fla. native came in 10th with a mark of 540.75
After capturing a 10th place finish in the preliminaries with a score of 267.00, sophomore Tess Waresmith made her first appearance in the Zone B three-meter finals to finish fifteenth with a score of 502.35.
Senior Derek Starks qualified for the men’s finals and came in tenth on the 1-meter board with a score of 602.85. Earlier in the day, he finished seventh with a mark of 301.15 in the preliminaries.
The NCAA Zone B Diving Championships will commence Saturday at 11 a.m. with the women’s one-meter and men’s three-meter.
