Divers Head to NCAA Zone B Diving Championships
3/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 12, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - While eight members of the Alabama Swimming and Diving teams have already punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships, seven more will take their shot at making it to the big dance this weekend at the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships held in Knoxville, Tenn.
"We have been very good off the boards this season, pretty much up and down the line," Alabama head coach Eric McIlquham said. "We have the potential to do very well at the Zone Championships and get some folks to the NCAA Championships who will really be able to help score some points."
The Crimson Tide is sending two men and five women to the meet which serves as the divers' gateway to the national championships. Junior All-American Aaron Ashworth is aiming for a return trip while sophomore Adam Booher, along with freshman Carrie Dragland, junior Elizabeth Hughes and sophomores Baylee Elsson, Laura Dunn and Olivia Covey will all be vying to make their NCAA debut. They will be striving to join the swimmers, three women and five men, who have already made the meet.
Each zone meet has a certain number of berths available to the NCAA Championships with Zone B having 11 bids for the men and 10 for the women. The slots will be decided by the diver's finishes in the one-meter, three-meter and platform events.
Fleshner is a two-time SEC Champion and the 2009 Southeastern Conference Male Diver of the Year. He finished third off the three-meter at last year's NCAA Championships and was seventh at the United States Olympic Trials last summer. Booher finaled off the three-meter board and the platform at the SEC Championships.
Both Hughes and Dragland won SEC titles last month with Hughes taking top honors off the platform and Dragland winning the three-meter and taking second off the platform. Dragland was named both the SEC Female Diver of the Year and SEC Female Freshman Diver of the Year.
Dunn scored off all three events at the recent SEC Championships while Covey scored off the platform and one-meter board. Ellson is making her return to competition after missing the SEC Championships with a broken hand suffered during the Tide's dual meet at Kentucky toward the end of the regular season.
The men will compete on the one-meter on Friday, the three-meter on Saturday and the platform on Sunday. The women will go on the three-meter Friday, followed by the one-meter then platform on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Players Mentioned
