Texas A&M
NCAA Zone D Diving Championships
Aggies Advance Three Divers to NCAA Championships
Mar 14, 2010 | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 14, 2010
Texas A&M advanced three of its divers to their respective NCAA Championship meets after three days of competition at the NCAA Zone D Diving Regional at the Student Recreation Natatorium on the A&M campus.
Junior Jaele Patrick and sophomore Janie Potvin qualified for the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, while sophomore Grant Nel advanced to the NCAA Men's Championships. Patrick and Nel earned their qualification Friday when Patrick placed third in the one-meter springboard and Nel placed first in the three-meter board. Potvin advanced by virtue of a fifth-place finish in the three-meter on Saturday.
"There is a lot of pressure involved with the Zone diving and they did a great of job of responding to that pressure," first-year A&M diving coach Jay Lerew said. "Grant did a terrific job all the way through. I'm very pleased with the way he is diving and he's ready for the NCAA Championships. This was Janie's first time at the Zone meet and she responded like a veteran. She's a platform specialist, but she qualified on the springboard and took away some of the pressure. Jaele qualified on the first day and then cruised through."
In Sunday's action, sophomore Lorena Lujan came within one place advancing to the national meet with a fourth-place finish in the women's platform dive. Lujan finished with a score of 495.50, which was only 2.30 points behind third place finisher and last qualifier. Potvin also placed 11th with 438.05 points.
On the men's side, Nel was third on the platform with a score of 739.70. Nel finished the weekend as the only diver - male or female - to place in the top three in all three dives. Prior to Sunday, Nel had placed first in the three-meter and second in the one-meter.
Both the Aggies' NCAA Championships rosters are set with the women's team taking 16 qualifiers to national meet in West Lafayette, Ind., on March 18-20, while the men's squad takes 10 to Columbus, Ohio on March 25-27.
Players Mentioned
