NCAA Men’s Championships: Platform Diving Goes to Perfect 10 Carson Tyler
There’s not much more that Carson Tyler could’ve done with his fifth dive at the NCAA Championships on Saturday night.
The Indiana sophomore hit his back three-and-a-half tuck about as good as a diver can be hit – to the tune of six 10s from the seven judges, with a recalcitrant 9.5 mixed in. The dive supplied Tyler with 99 points and was the signature moment on his NCAA platform title.
“I think so,” Tyler said, when asked if that was about as good as he could hit that dive. “Judge 6 didn’t think so.”
No hard feelings ultimately for Tyler, who scored 476.30 points. He took the lead in the fourth round, both he and Bryden Hattie going hit-for-hit down the stretch. But that fifth round was an absolute haymaker by Tyler.
It’s a dive he’s had in the works for a while. And to execute it so perfectly at such a monumental juncture of the competition is the stuff of diving dreams.
“I’ve been really trying to put all the pieces together with that one, so to be able to come in that moment and think about all the emotions and hit every single one, that was really, really cool to be able to do that,” Tyler said. “I think that was the best I could probably do that.”
Hattie, a junior from Tennessee, finished second in 455.10. He turned in a great fourth-round dive to get 83 points, then hit his back two-and-a-half twister for 86.40 points in the fifth round. But Tyler was too far out front. He needed a shade over 60 points. He got 81 in the finale.
The back-and-forth between the two was daunting for Tyler. And after hitting that blockbuster of a fifth, he had to channel the mental toughness to not get too high with work still to do.
“Going after him and seeing every single score he puts up, that makes you nervous, obviously,” Tyler said. “So trying to forget about that and focus on yourself, try to breathe through it.”
Indiana took two of the top three spots, with Quinn Henninger third with a score of 408.60. South Carolina Senior Emanuel Vazquez was fourth, ahead of a pair of Buckeyes: Clayton Chaplin in fifth and Lyle Yost in sixth. Yost, the 1-meter champ, tied with Leonardo Garcia of Florida for sixth.
Hattie won bronze a year ago. Garcia was fourth. Maxwell Flory, who finished fifth last year, was 10th this time.
Carson Tyler was fourth on 3-meter and 20th in 1-meter.
Cal pushed its lead to 50 points for the team title by pushing Joshua Thai to 14th. Indiana’s scorers allowed it to leapfrog NC State by 9.5 points in the battle for fourth.
The diving points ultimately placed Indiana fourth at the end of the night, an achievement Tyler and his fellow divers felt a distinct sense of ownership of. It’s just another aspect of the night that went about as well as Tyler could’ve scripted.
“I’ve always dreamed of a moment like that,” Tyler said of the fateful fifth dive. “When you need to be counted on and you hit it for 10s, that’s every diver’s dreams.”
Event 20 Men Platform Diving
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Meet: M 548.90 3/26/2011 Nick McCrory, Duke
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== Championship Final ===
1 Tyler, Carson SO Indiana 425.05 476.30 20
2 Hattie, Bryden JR Tennessee 418.20 455.10 17
3 Henninger, Quentin SO Indiana 388.05 408.60 16
4 Vazquez, Emanuel SR South Carolina 368.85 402.20 15
5 Chaplin, Clayton SO Ohio St 392.60 393.55 14
6 Garcia, Leonardo SR Florida 390.10 366.35 12.5
6 Yost, Lyle SR Ohio St 363.20 366.35 12.5
8 Farouk, Mohamed SO Miami 376.95 339.70 11
=== Consolation Final ===
9 Paul, Carson FR LSU 361.60 427.05 9
10 Flory, Maxwell SR Miami 355.35 395.60 7
11 Foster, Ethan JR Stanford 358.80 376.50 6
12 Duperre, Noah JR Texas 351.00 352.55 5
13 Hensley, Rhett SO TAMU 358.10 345.55 4
14 Thai, Joshua FR California 347.85 337.55 3
15 Stone, Nicholas FR Tennessee 346.30 332.00 2
16 Markentin, Bjorn SR Arizona 347.50 308.30 1
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 20
1. California 448 2. Arizona St 398
3. Texas 356 4. Indiana 353
5. NC State 343.5 6. Florida 327.5
7. Tennessee 192.5 8. Stanford 121.5
9. Virginia Tech 119 10. Auburn 109
11. Ohio St 108 12. Georgia 90
13. Louisville 80 13. Texas A&M 80
15. Virginia 70 16. Lsu 62.5
16. Missouri 62.5 18. Notre Dame 62
19. Alabama 47 20. Minnesota 36
21. Michigan 35 22. Southern California 31
23. Miami 27 23. UNC 27
23. Wisconsin 27 26. South Carolina 15
27. Utah 14 28. Princeton 13
28. Siuc 13 28. Kentucky 13
31. Columbia 12 32. Arizona 11
33. Penn St 4 33. Pittsburgh 4
35. Georgia Tech 3 36. Air Force 2
36. Towson 2 38. Purdue 1
Actually, it was 6 10’s and a 9.0