Freshman Holly Waxman Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.- Utah dive completed the first day of NCAA Zones on Monday and in her first Zones meet, freshman Holly Waxman punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships qualifying in the women's 1m dive.
"Holly did an incredible job today and I'm so proud of how she performed in her first zone meet," head coach Richard Marschner said. "This meet is such a difficult meet to compete well at and she handled the pressure and intensity of the competition like a champ. I knew she was fully capable of this performance and I'm thrilled that she was up to the task."
In the prelims, Waxman secured 10th with a total of 276.20 to advance to the finals. Competing alongside her was Lizzy DeCecco who totaled 259.45 (19th) to earn the top-20 finish.
Waxman represented Ute diving in the finals and captured her bid to the championships with a score of 558.25, good for seventh overall.
The men opened with the 3m today and all four competing Utes finished inside the top-20 to advance to the finals. Tony Chen finished seventh (343.70), Ben Smyth placed two back in ninth (317.90) and Jenner Pennock earned 15th (297.05) and Luke McDivitt finished 17th (293.35).
Moving to the finals, Chen (5th) and Smyth (9th) recorded top-10 finishes with scores of 719.95 and 648.40, respectively. McDivitt placed 13th totaling 630.55 and Pennock rounded out Utah with a 597.20 to secure 15th.
"Tony and Ben put themselves in a position to be able to dive in the 3m at NCAA's, if Ben can qualify on the platform and Tony can qualify on the 1m," Marschner said. "Ben was close to a new best today so I'm excited for what that could bring tomorrow."
Up Next
Utah diving will continue the NCAA Zone's tomorrow starting at 11:30am MST with the women's 3m and men's platform prelims.
Fans can stream all sessions of the Zone Championships on the NAU Facebook page and live results will also be available on Divemeets.com.
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