Ross Collects All-America Honor in 1-meter Diving
March 26, 2009
College Station, Texas – University of Miami junior Reuben Ross took seventh place in the 1-meter diving event Thursday evening, collecting his third consecutive All-America honor for the event at this year’s NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships in College Station, Texas. This year’s event is hosted by Texas A&M University inside the Student Recreation Natatorium.
Ross finished the event with a score of 379.80 through six final dives. He started the day finishing fourth in the preliminary round with a score of 367.35.
Ross began the finals with a score of 74.10 after completing an Inward 2 ½ Somersault Tuck, but found his second dive (Forward 3 ½ Somersault Tuck) a bit harder as he scored just a 42.30, moving to eighth place.
The Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada) native bounced back on his third dive with a score of 63 to move up a spot to seventh place after landing a Reverse 2 ½ Somersault Tuck. That seventh place spot is as high as Ross would advance, however, as the rest of the field stayed steady throughout their final three dives. Ross went to score a 70.50 on his fourth dive, a Reverse 1 ½ Somersault Tuck, 2 ½ Twist Free.
Drew Livingston of Texas claimed the top honor for the event, scoring a final round of 442.70–setting a new meet record on the 1-meter springboard. Behind him was David Boudia, the reigning Big Ten Diver of the Year, from Purdue scoring a 420.80 in his final round. Rounding out the top three competitors was Eric Sehn of homestanding Texas A&M with a score of 420.70.
Sehn definitely had the crowd behind him as he was applauded heavily, along with the Longhorns’ Livingston, following every dive.
As earlier stated, this is Reuben Ross’ third consecutive All-America honor as a Hurricane, collecting the award in 2007 (freshman) and 2008 (sophomore). His highest finish in the 1-meter event was a fourth place showing last year in Washington.
Ross now seeks to collect All-America status on the 3-meter springboard for the third consecutive year tomorrow evening as the defending National Champion from a year ago. Along with women’s diver Brittany Viola, Ross helped to collect the 22nd individual national title for the UM program.
Live stats/results for all diving events, as well as full bios of each participant will be made available through www.divemeets.com.
For more information on the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving National Championships, please locate your internet browser to http://www.aggieathletics.com/ncaa2009/swimming/men/. Once there, you will find live scoring, results and information pertaining to this year’s championships.
