NCAA Zone B Diving Results

McDonald qualifies for the NCAAs

 

AUBURN, Ala. - Virginia Tech's Mikey McDonald (So., Annandale, Va.) became the first H2Okie diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships over the weekend at the Zone B Diving Regionals on the campus of Auburn University since Jackie Davoud and Martha Peck accomplished the feat in 1996.

McDonald's sixth-place finish in the 1-meter on Saturday earned him one of the 10 men's qualifying spots in the regional, which involved a total of 41 divers. In the prelim, he had the seventh-best score at 324.55 to reach the final and then recorded a score of 329.10 for a combined total of 653.65 to advance to the NCAAs. Even though he only finished 16^th in the 3-meter on Friday and 19^th in the platform event on Sunday, he will still be able to dive in those events as well.

"He had a rough time on the first day in the 3-meter, but he came back strong on Saturday to give himself a chance of qualifying," diving coach Ron Piemonte said. "It was really good to see him dig deep and give a great performance to advance to the NCAA Championships. I'm very happy for him."

Four other Tech divers - Julia Bradford (So., Mansfield, Mass), Heather Fulton (So., Bridgeton, Mo.), Daniel Martin (Fr., Fairfax, Va.) and Sarah Milton (Fr., Plano, Texas) - also competed at the regional with Milton being the closet to reaching an event final. She placed 22^nd in the 3-meter, just missing out on one of the top-18 event final spots.

Next on the schedule for the H₂Okies is the NCAA Championships. Jessica Botzum (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.), Jordan McHorney (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.), Megan Newell (Jr., Ashburn, Va.) and Sara Smith (Jr., McGaheysville, Va.) will compete at the three-day Women's NCAAs beginning on Thursday at Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. McDonald will join Kaan Tayla (Sr., Ankara, Turkey) at the Men's NCAAs the following week in Federal Way, Wash.