Brittany Viola Takes Top Podium Honors Again
March 12, 2011
Day Three Results (PDF) 
| Complete NCAA Zone Diving Qualifier Results (PDF)
ATHENS, Ga. – University of Miami senior women’s diver Brittany Viola added to her list of collegiate platform victories on Saturday, taking first place honors with a score of 322.40 in the NCAA Diving “B” Zone Qualifier housed in Gabrielsen Natatorium on the campus of the University of Georgia. The three-day event concluded on Saturday after six events through men’s and women’s diving.
With three University of Miami divers already advancing on to the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, Viola looked to make it four out of five divers competing under veteran UMiami and Olympic head coach Randy Ableman – now in his 22nd year at the helm of the diving program in Coral Gables.
In order for a student-athlete to compete in the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, he or she must dive in their respective events in his/her zone qualifier, and perform the required five dives (with an option of six) and accumulate a qualifying score for the finals event following the preliminary round.
Viola, trailing Florida’s Monica Dodson in second place after the preliminary round of dives, stepped onto the board seeking an opportunity to advance to next weekend’s NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas for the fourth time in her illustrious career.
She won the 2008 NCAA title on the 10-meter board.
The Orlando native would score four-of-five times above 65 points en route to the title. After landing a 66-point judges’ score in the opener, Viola topped that with a 75.20-point splash in the second dive. On that attempt, she executed an Inward 3 1/2 Somersault Tuck.
She would go on to score a 69.50 on her fourth dive – a Back 2 1/2 Somersault Pike.
For Viola, this is her second platform title of the year, recently winning the event at the USA Winter Diving National Championships in Iowa City, Iowa. Away from the boards, two weeks ago she was selected to receive this year’s James-Weaver-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship Award from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Ableman will now travel to both Austin, Texas (Women’s NCAA’s) and Minneapolis, Minn. – home of the Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Freshman male diver Samuel Dorman will compete for the Hurricanes in the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, respectively. The Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships run from March 24-26.
On the women’s side, Thea Vock (3-meter), Carrie Dragland (1-meter) and Viola (platform) will compete for national titles in their respective events, beginning March 17, inside the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on the campus of the University of Texas.
Swimming head coach Christie Shefchunas will join Ableman in Texas, where she will coach senior Annika Saarnak in the 100 butterfly – marking the first time a UM swimmer has advanced to the NCAA’s since Summer Olympics Gold medalist [2008 Summer Games] Manon van Rooijen accomplished the task in 2002.
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