
Halia Bower Leads the Way for Alabama on Day One of the Auburn Diving Invitational
12/15/2021 6:14:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
Bower took fifth off the 1-meter springboard in finals after placing eighth following the preliminary round
AUBURN, Ala. – Halia Bower led the way for the Alabama contingent on the first day of the Auburn Diving Invitational being held at the James E. Martin Aquatic Center on the Auburn campus.
All three Crimson Tide divers improved their scores by at least 10 points between prelims and finals of the 1-meter springboard. Bower took fifth place off the 1-meter with a score 266.25 points. She moved up three places from the preliminary round, where she was eighth with 249.30 points.
Natalie Donkle also posted a top-10 finish off the 1-meter, tallying 249.16 points to take seventh place, moving up four spots from prelims where she tallied 230.15 points. Courtney Russo rounded out the Tide's first day of competition, taking 14th place in finals with 236.40 points, moving up one place after totaling 226.55 points in prelims.
The Schedule
- Thursday's events include the men's 1-meter springboard at 11 a.m. and the women's 3-meter at 3 p.m.
- Friday includes the men's 3-meter springboard at 11 a.m. and the women's platform at 3 p.m.
- The meet closes on Saturday with the men's platform at 11 a.m.
Crimson Tide Divers
- Alabama's women are led off the 1-meter springboard (283.43) and platform (276.00) by two-time Southeastern Conference medalist Tanesha Lucoe
- Halia Bower leads the Crimson Tide women off the 3-meter board (318.75)
- Lucoe has qualified for the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships off the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform, while Bower has qualified off the 1-meter and 3-meter
- The men will be without rookie Mohamed Farouk, who competed at the FINA World Junior Diving Championships last week, finaling off the platform and taking ninth overall
- The UA men will be led in Auburn by Kevin Li off the 1-meter (358.43) and 3-meter (353.80) springboards
- Hunter Jaynes (284.25) will lead the way off platform
- Farouk has already qualified for the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships off the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform, while Li has qualified off the 1-meter and 3-meter and Jaynes has qualified off the 3-meter board
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