Alabama Sends Six to the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships

ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Alabama divers are in Athens, Ga. this week for the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships held March 9-11 in the Ramsey Center on the Georgia campus.

While swimmers qualify for the upcoming NCAA Championships by virtue of times posted during the season, divers qualify exclusively through the five Zone meets being held this week. Each Zone has a set number of slots per event. For the women, Zone B has seven slots off both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events and eight off the platform, while the men have 10 off the 1-meter and eight each off the 3-meter board and platform.

The Crimson Tide is sending a contingent of six, including three men and three women, led by 2020 Southeastern Conference platform champion, freshman Tanesha Lucoe.

While Lucoe and sophomore Shumpei Komatsu are making their first appearance at the Zone B Championships, sophomores Kevin Li, Hunter Jaynes, Halia Bower and Natalie Donkle are all making their second trip to the nationals qualifier.

The Zone B Championships

There will divers from 17 different schools at this week's Zone B Championships, including SEC rivals Auburn, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The meet starts Monday at 10 a.m. CT, with the women's 1-meter competition and the men's 3-meter event.
The men and women will switch on Tuesday, with the men's going off the 1-meter and the women the 3-meter.
Both the men and women will close out the meet with the platform event on Wednesday.

The Crimson Tide's Zone B Contingent

Lucoe won the 2020 SEC platform title with a school-record score of 338.75 as well as scoring off the 1-meter board.
Li earned SEC All-Freshman honors in 2019 and finished 11^th off the 1-meter board at last year's Zone meet. This season he scored off the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform at the SEC Championships.
Jaynes scored off both boards and the platform at the recent SEC Championships and competed off the 3-meter and platform at last year's Zone meet.
Donkle scored off the 1-meter and platform at the 2020 SEC Championships and competed off the 3-meter board at last year's NCAA Zone B Championships.
Bower competed off the 1-meter board at the 2019 NCAA Zone B Championships.
Komatsu transferred to Alabama after competing for Lindenwood as a rookie, where he finaled off the 3-meter board at the New South Conference Championships.

Up Next

The Crimson Tide women are already sending 11 swimmers to the NCAA Championships, which will also be held in Athens, Ga., March 18-21.
Swimming qualifiers for the men's NCAA Championships will be announced Wednesday, March 11. The men's championships will be held March 25-28 in Indianapolis, Ind.

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