March 13, 2008
Both of Texas A&M?â„¢s female divers will compete at the Zone D Diving Championships to be held at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium this weekend on the University of Houston campus.
The three-day championship is scheduled to begin on Friday with the one-meter springboard at 3 p.m. On Saturday, the ladies will participate on the three-meter springboard at 10 a.m. The competition will conclude on Sunday with the platform diving competition scheduled to tentatively start at 12:30 p.m.
Both sophomore Alex Tipple (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and freshman Emily Watson (Frisco) will be competing at the zone championship for the first time in their collegiate careers.
Alex Tipple is coming off a strong performance at the Big 12 Championships in Austin two weeks ago. Tipple earned a fourth-place finish on the one-meter springboard at the Big 12 meet and tacked on seventh and 10th place finishes on the platform and three-meter, respectively, earning a lifetime-best score of 212.25 on the tower.
Tipple has earned career best scores in all of her springboard events this season as well, gaining zone qualifying scores on both the one and three-meter springboards during the dual meet season as well as setting a 30-plus point lifetime best zone qualifier in the one-meter (championship) at the Art Adamson Invitational.
Emily Watson earned the right to compete at the Zone D Championships thanks to a career-best score of 273.15 on the one-meter springboard which she achieved in a second-place finish in the Aggies?â„¢ 178-119 dual meet win over LSU in Baton Rouge on Jan. 19. Watson?â„¢s score on the one-meter (dual) currently is the team leading score for that event this season.