Divers Showcase Strong Performances at Day 2 of Air Force Invite
USAF ACADEMY – Utah diving completed day 2 of the Air Force Diving Invitational on Friday night from Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was another successful performance for the women's squad as they competed in the team event, finishing second behind Wyoming (315.20) with a final score of 304.25.
"Our women had an incredibly strong team event as it was a back and forth contest with a very good Wyoming team," head coach Richard Marschner said. "It was really fun to be able to see our divers have the opportunity to compete in a true team event like this because we've never had that chance before."
Following the same strategy deployed last night during the men's team final, Lexi Mills competed in both 10M rounds for Utah and put up a score of 41.85 in the first and 46.4 in the second. Lizzy DeCecco and Holly Waxman traded both the 1M and 3M dives. DeCecco scored a 54.6 in the 3M and followed that with a 49.2 on the 1M. Waxman also totaled 49.2 on the 1M and posted a 63 on the 3M.
BYU finished in third (275.7), California Baptist followed in fourth (263.85) as meet host Air Force (230.85) and Denver (226.5) rounded out the competing schools.
In addition to the women's team event, both the men's 3M and women's 1M finals took place. Fireworks went off during the men's 3M final as two divers surpassed the 400-point mark. Senior Tony Chen was just short of the 400 mark placing third with a 395.10 and junior Luke McDivitt followed in fourth with a 387.50, his best 3M score of the season. A pair of Aggies from Texas A&M finished 1-2 as Kurtis Mathews took home the event title with a score of 486.95.
"Tony and Luke put together a brilliant 3M final and both were knocking on the door of cracking the 400-point barrier. The men's 3M final was the best event that's ever taken place at that pool," Marschner stated.
Moving to the women's 1M final, freshman Holly Waxman represented Utah posting a season-best 280.70 for fifth. DeCecco and Mills bounced back in the consolation final as DeCecco captured the win (275.40) and Mills earned third (246.35).
"Molly was very steady and strong on the 1M and we just need to tweak a minor issue on her entries and she'll be ready for Pac-12's and beyond," Marschner said.
Up Next
Utah will continue competition on Saturday, the final day of the event. Action is slated to begin 10:00am MT with the women's platform prelims and conclude with the men's platforms finals at 2:30pm MT. Fans can follow the action live on the Air Force YouTube page.
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