Hokie ClubCHRISTIANSBURG, Va. -- Junior Kaylea Arnett and senior Ryan Hawkins both earned berths to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Monday afternoon, as the Virginia Tech diving teams wrapped up the first day of competition at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
Arnett tallied 620.65 points across the prelims and finals to take first place in the women’s 1M event for the second consecutive season, clinching a trip to the NCAA Championships for the third straight year.
Hawkins won the preliminaries of the men’s 3M event with 408.70 points before finishing with 788.15 points and earning runner-up honors to lock up his fourth-straight trip to the NCAA Championships.
“I’m really pleased with both Kaylea and Ryan,” Head Diving Coach Ron Piemonte said. “With Kaylea’s win on 1-meter and Ryan’s second-place finish both clinching NCAA spots, they did a fantastic job today.”
The H2Okies also put multiple divers in position to gain NCAA qualification later in the event.
Junior Kyle Butts took fourth place in the 3M event, racking up 709.70 points to edge out fifth place by just 1.05 points. Freshman TJ Shinholser (675.00) and sophomore Logan Stevens (673.00) took sixth and seventh, respectively, while senior John Trope took 16th to give Tech five divers in the finals.
On the women’s side, freshman Ashley Buchter grabbed fifth place in the 1M with 511.55 points, while junior Kelli Stockton took home third in the prelims before finishing sixth with 508.70 points.
“I was very happy with Jared’s performance on the 3-meter board,” Piemonte said. “Even though we have two events left, he’s put himself in great position to maybe make the NCAA championships. Ashley and Kelli both getting in the top six is also a great start for them this week.”
The men’s 1M and women’s 3M events will take place tomorrow, with prelims getting started at noon. Finals for both events will follow roughly 15 minutes after prelims finish.
Zone A, which covers the east coast from Virginia to Maine, has been allocated 11 total spots (6 women, 5 men) for the 2014 NCAA Championships. Competitions in four other zones (Greensboro, N.C., Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Minn. and Colorado Springs, Colo.) will also send qualifiers to the NCAA Championships.
Admission is free for the duration of the Zone A Championships. Today’s results and live results for the entire week can be found at the attached links.