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This week, the NCAA Zone Diving Qualifying events begin to take place at the NCAA Division I level. This is the last step for divers to make the NCAA Division I Championships later this month.
The new system is really similar to swimming qualifying with a de facto A cut, B cut and school-paid-for invitations versus what the NCAA reimburses an institution for in terms of a diver competing at the event. This was only possible with swimming breaking through with the NCAA previously to institute the relay-alternate system where schools can pay for swimmers to attend above the NCAA-reimbursed student-athlete cap for the meet.
The new system is as follows:
“The top five female and top four male divers from each event at their respective zone diving 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 championships NCAA championships. All eligible divers must have achieved the zone qualifying score prior to the NCAA championships in all events they wish to participate.”
Numbers of Qualifying Spots Per Zone for 2015-16 (A CUT)
(Consider these placements A cuts as swimmers. If a diver finishes within the top number of qualifying spots allocated for an event within a zone, that diver is then invited to NCAAs for THAT EVENT ONLY)
Women
2015-16 NCAA Zone Diving Qualifying Spots for Women
| Zone | 1m | 3m | 10m |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| B | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| C | 12 | 7 | 10 |
| D | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| E | 9 | 11 | 9 |
Men
2015-16 NCAA Zone Diving Qualifying Spots for Men
| Zone | 1m | 3m | 10m |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| B | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| C | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| D | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| E | 8 | 5 | 8 |
The varying numbers per zone, as explained above, are based on the success of the zone the prior year.
The next step is called the Optional Entry at the NCAA Championships.
Optional Entry at the NCAA Championships (B CUT)
“Any diver that is eligible to compete as noted above will be allowed to optionally enter any other event(s) at the championships, provided that the diver finished in the top 12 at the same zone meet and has achieved the zone qualifying score for that event prior to the NCAA championships.”
(Consider this step the B cut for divers. Once a diver has been invited in an event, they will be required to finish in the top 12 of the other two events to be able to dive in them at NCAAs)
For those that might not understand the set-up, divers must qualify through a separate meet instead of just meeting a set standard like swimmers. Since diving is subjectively scored, these zone meets drastically reduce the impact that any given set of diving coaches scoring diving at dual meets can have on the NCAA meet by forcing zone-cut divers to compete against each other regionally.
Zone Diving Schedule
Zone A
Location: Annapolis, Maryland
Dates: March 7-9
Host: U.S. Naval Academy
Meet Director: Bill Givens (givens@usna.edu)
Zone B
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Dates: March 7-9
Host: Georgia Institute of Technology
Meet Director: Cheryl LaFoy (clafoy@athletics.gatech.edu)
Zone C
Location: West Lafayette, Indiana
Dates: March 10-12
Host: Purdue University
Meet Director: David Fraseur (fraseur@purdue.edu)
Zone D
Location: College Station, Texas
Dates: March 7-9
Host: Texas A&M University, College Station
Meet Director: Mike Caruso (mcaruso@athletics.tamu.edu)
Zone E
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Dates: March 7-9
Host: Northern Arizona University
Meet Director: Nikki Huffman (Nikki.Huffman@nau.edu)
