Though we’re not DiveDove, we do dabble in diving coverage, and as diving can have a major impact on the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, we cover NCAA Zone Diving – mainly through the lens of how national diving qualifiers could impact the team points battles later this month.
2021 NCAA Zone Diving
- Zone A: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC
- Zone B: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC
- Zone C: University of Kentucky / Lexington, KY
- Zone D: University of Kentucky / Lexington, KY
- Zone E: Northern Arizona University / Flagstaff, AZ
Freshman Brendan McCourt qualified for NCAAs on the final day, bringing the Texas men to four divers and setting up roster decisions for head coach Eddie Reese.
McCourt joins Jordan Windle, Noah Duperre and Andrew Harness among the NCAA qualifying divers for the Texas men. With each diver counting for half a roster spot, McCourt and Harness are likely competing with a swimmer for the same spot on Texas’s 18-person NCAA team.
Windle and Duperre are locks. Windle will be in the hunt to win any or all of the three boards at NCAAs. He won two events to open the Zone meet and was second on 1-meter on the final day, 28 back of LSU’s Juan Hernandez. The freshman Duperre looks like an elite dive pickup – he was third in this tough Zone on all three boards, including 1-meter.
It was a very stratified zone – Windle and Hernandez accounted for the 1st and 2nd spots on all three boards. Duperre was third in every event, and Harness was fourth in every single event.
McCourt is qualified to compete in all three boards, but won’t earn NCAA reimbursement. It seems unlikely that finances come into the decision-making process when Texas is chasing a national title, but in a year of sharp budget cuts to swim/dive programs across the country, the reimbursement slots are that much more valuable in each Zone.
For the women, Paola Pineda won the platform event, adding a third NCAA event to her lineup. Her teammate Janie Boyle was second, booking her NCAA bid and bringing Texas to four women on the NCAA roster, too. (Bridget O’Neil will compete on both springboards and Jordan Skilken qualified on all three boards.
Missouri got two new qualifiers on the women’s side. Savana Trueb was sixth and Sarah Rousseau ninth to qualify on day 3.
Current Qualifiers
Reimbursed divers are in bold, with invited-but-not-reimbursed divers in non-bold. You can read more about the distinction below.
| Women | |
| Diver | Events |
| Sarah Bacon, Minnesota | 1m, 3m |
| Paola Pineda, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Brooke Schultz, Arkansas | 1m, 3m |
| Janie Boyle, Texas | Pl |
| Aimee Wilson, Texas A&M | 1m, 3m |
| Abigail Knapton, Nebraska | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Jordan Skilken, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Charlye Campbell, Texas A&M | 1m, 3m |
| Bridget O’Neil, Texas | 1m, 3m |
| Chase Farris, Houston | Pl |
| Savana Trueb, Missouri | Pl |
| Montserrat Lavenant, LSU | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Anne Tuxen, LSU | 3m, Pl |
| Megan Phillip, Minnesota | 1m |
| Helle Tuxen, LSU | Pl |
| Sarah Rousseau, Missouri | Pl |
| Sara Troyer, Arkansas | 1m, 3m |
| Samantha Tamborski, Iowa | 3m |
| Chloe Ceyanes, Texas A&M | 3m |
| Men | |
| Diver | Events |
| Jordan Windle, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Juan Hernandez, LSU | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Noah Duperre, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Andrew Harness, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Jake Butler, Minnesota | 3m |
| Tazman Abramowicz, Wisconsin | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Parker Hardigree, SMU | 1m, 3m |
| Thomas Stewart, Texas A&M | 1m, Pl |
| Peter Smithson, SMU | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Takuto Endo, Missouri | Pl |
| Brendan McCourt, Texas | 1m, 3m, Pl |
| Carlo Lopez, Missouri | 1m, 3m, Pl |
SIMPLIFIED INVITE PROCEDURES
You can read a more in-depth look at the selection process here. Effectively, each Zone earns a specific number of qualifying spots in each event, based on how that Zone performed at NCAAs last year. Divers who place inside the qualifying places earn an NCAA invite. A diver invited in one event can compete at NCAAs in any other diving event where they were top 12 in their Zone meet. The highest-placing divers earn NCAA reimbursement, while lower-placing qualifiers can compete at NCAAs, but their school must pay for their travel and lodging at the meet.
