AUBURN, Ala. — Sophomore Rachel Ware of the LSU diving team earned a NCAA bid for the second-straight year as the NCAA Zone “B” Championships came to a close Sunday afternoon at the James E. Martin Aquatic Center.
Ware will have a quick turnaround as she leaves Tuesday for the NCAA Women’s Championships, which will begin Thursday at the Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio.
She will compete in all three diving events at the NCAA Women’s Championships. The 1-meter competition takes place this Thursday, the 3-meter is on Friday and the platform on is Saturday. Preliminaries begin at 12:30 p.m. CDT followed by the finals at 6 p.m.
Ware, the SEC Female Diver of the Year, was one of 12 female NCAA qualifiers out of the Zone “B” meet. Three Tigers still have a chance to join Ware as NCAA participants. Junior Niko Dalmon was selected as a first alternate, while senior Paige Brown and freshman Michael Neubacher were named second alternates.
“Our divers had some remarkable performance but some just fell a little short of qualifying,” said LSU diving coach Dough Shaffer. “They each performed admirably and never gave up. Paige and Michael each had a shot at winning the platform today. I am a little disappointed with some of the final results but not the effort our divers gave. They competed well throughout the event but sometimes the cards just don’t fall your way.”
The Zone “B” meet finished Sunday with the platform event. LSU’s highest finish was fifth on both sides with Brown (504.30) and Neubacher (741.10).
Dalman and Ware also reached the platform finals. Dalman finished ninth with a combined score of 664.90 ? scoring 340.75 in the prelims and 324.15 in the finals.
Ware scored 211.60 in the prelims and 217.90 in the finals to finish 13th with a combined score of 429.50.
Junior Nathan Schreiber had a prelim score of 243.15.
The men’s championships will start Saturday, March 22, at the Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.