March 11, 2010
Over 60 divers from 18 different schools will converge on the Texas A&M campus this weekend with one goal in mind -- earning a coveted berth to either the men's or women's NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.
       Texas A&M will host the 2010 Zone D Diving Regional Friday through Sunday at the Student Recreation Natatorium. Diving gets started at the Rec at 11 a.m. each day. The women's one-meter (11 a.m. prelim/1 p.m. final) and men's three-meter (3 p.m. prelim/5 p.m. final) will be contested on Friday; the men's one-meter (11 a.m. prelim/1 p.m. final) and women's three-meter (3 p.m. prelim/5 p.m. final) on Saturday, and the men's and women's platform events will be contested on Sunday (11 a.m. prelim/1 p.m. final). Live results will be available on divemeets.com.
       The Zone D Regional is one of five regionals across the country that will determine the diving field at the NCAA Championships. Other schools hosting zone regionals are the University of Texas (Austin, Texas), Rutgers University (Piscataway, N.J.), Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Ga.) and Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.).
       The Zone D Regional will send a total of 20 divers -- eight men and 12 women -- to the NCAA Championships, which is the most of all five zone meets. The NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships will be contested in West Lafayette, Ind., March 18-20, while the men's meet is March 25-27 in Columbus, Ohio.
       The meet will host divers from the states of Texas (Texas A&M, Texas, TCU, SMU and Houston), Louisiana (LSU and New Orleans), Wisconsin (Wisconsin, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee), Iowa (Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa), Missouri (Missouri and Missouri State), Minnesota (Minnesota), Arkansas (Arkansas) and Kansas (Kansas).
       The Aggies will be represented by seven divers at zones -- five from the women's team and two from the men's team. Competing for the Aggie women are seniors Haley Haynes and Emily Watson, junior Henry Stevens and sophomore Grant Nel will represent the A&M men. Both Patrick and Nel earned NCAA spots at the 2009 Zone D meet and went on to earn All-America honors.
       Three members of the Aggie diving crew won Big 12 individual championships in their most recent action. Patrick swept the one- and three-meter boards to earn Big 12 Diver of the Meet, while Potvin was victorious on the platform and was A&M's nominee for Newcomer of the Meet. Nel won the three-meter and placed second on the one-meter and fourth on the platform to share Diver of the Meet honors.