NCAA Men’s Championships: Platform Diving Goes to Perfect 10 Carson Tyler

carson-tyler-
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Men’s Championships: Platform Diving Goes to Perfect 10 Carson Tyler

There’s not much more that Carson Tyler could’ve done with his fifth dive at the NCAA Championships on Saturday night.

The Indiana sophomore hit his back three-and-a-half tuck about as good as a diver can be hit – to the tune of six 10s from the seven judges, with a recalcitrant 9.5 mixed in. The dive supplied Tyler with 99 points and was the signature moment on his NCAA platform title.

“I think so,” Tyler said, when asked if that was about as good as he could hit that dive. “Judge 6 didn’t think so.”

No hard feelings ultimately for Tyler, who scored 476.30 points. He took the lead in the fourth round, both he and Bryden Hattie going hit-for-hit down the stretch. But that fifth round was an absolute haymaker by Tyler.

It’s a dive he’s had in the works for a while. And to execute it so perfectly at such a monumental juncture of the competition is the stuff of diving dreams.

“I’ve been really trying to put all the pieces together with that one, so to be able to come in that moment and think about all the emotions and hit every single one, that was really, really cool to be able to do that,” Tyler said. “I think that was the best I could probably do that.”

Hattie, a junior from Tennessee, finished second in 455.10. He turned in a great fourth-round dive to get 83 points, then hit his back two-and-a-half twister for 86.40 points in the fifth round. But Tyler was too far out front. He needed a shade over 60 points. He got 81 in the finale.

The back-and-forth between the two was daunting for Tyler. And after hitting that blockbuster of a fifth, he had to channel the mental toughness to not get too high with work still to do.

“Going after him and seeing every single score he puts up, that makes you nervous, obviously,” Tyler said. “So trying to forget about that and focus on yourself, try to breathe through it.”

Indiana took two of the top three spots, with Quinn Henninger third with a score of 408.60. South Carolina Senior Emanuel Vazquez was fourth, ahead of a pair of Buckeyes: Clayton Chaplin in fifth and Lyle Yost in sixth. Yost, the 1-meter champ, tied with Leonardo Garcia of Florida for sixth.

Hattie won bronze a year ago. Garcia was fourth. Maxwell Flory, who finished fifth last year, was 10th this time.

Carson Tyler was fourth on 3-meter and 20th in 1-meter.

Cal pushed its lead to 50 points for the team title by pushing Joshua Thai to 14th. Indiana’s scorers allowed it to leapfrog NC State by 9.5 points in the battle for fourth.

The diving points ultimately placed Indiana fourth at the end of the night, an achievement Tyler and his fellow divers felt a distinct sense of ownership of. It’s just another aspect of the night that went about as well as Tyler could’ve scripted.

“I’ve always dreamed of a moment like that,” Tyler said of the fateful fifth dive. “When you need to be counted on and you hit it for 10s, that’s every diver’s dreams.”

 Event 20  Men Platform Diving
=========================================================================
         Meet: M 548.90  3/26/2011 Nick McCrory, Duke
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Tyler, Carson          SO Indiana            425.05     476.30   20  
  2 Hattie, Bryden         JR Tennessee          418.20     455.10   17  
  3 Henninger, Quentin     SO Indiana            388.05     408.60   16  
  4 Vazquez, Emanuel       SR South Carolina     368.85     402.20   15  
  5 Chaplin, Clayton       SO Ohio St            392.60     393.55   14  
  6 Garcia, Leonardo       SR Florida            390.10     366.35   12.5
  6 Yost, Lyle             SR Ohio St            363.20     366.35   12.5
  8 Farouk, Mohamed        SO Miami              376.95     339.70   11  
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Paul, Carson           FR LSU                361.60     427.05    9  
 10 Flory, Maxwell         SR Miami              355.35     395.60    7  
 11 Foster, Ethan          JR Stanford           358.80     376.50    6  
 12 Duperre, Noah          JR Texas              351.00     352.55    5  
 13 Hensley, Rhett         SO TAMU               358.10     345.55    4  
 14 Thai, Joshua           FR California         347.85     337.55    3  
 15 Stone, Nicholas        FR Tennessee          346.30     332.00    2  
 16 Markentin, Bjorn       SR Arizona            347.50     308.30    1  
 
                 Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 20                  
 
  1. California                        448   2. Arizona St                        398
  3. Texas                             356   4. Indiana                           353
  5. NC State                        343.5   6. Florida                         327.5
  7. Tennessee                       192.5   8. Stanford                        121.5
  9. Virginia Tech                     119  10. Auburn                            109
 11. Ohio St                           108  12. Georgia                            90
 13. Louisville                         80  13. Texas A&M                          80
 15. Virginia                           70  16. Lsu                              62.5
 16. Missouri                         62.5  18. Notre Dame                         62
 19. Alabama                            47  20. Minnesota                          36
 21. Michigan                           35  22. Southern California                31
 23. Miami                              27  23. UNC                                27
 23. Wisconsin                          27  26. South Carolina                     15
 27. Utah                               14  28. Princeton                          13
 28. Siuc                               13  28. Kentucky                           13
 31. Columbia                           12  32. Arizona                            11
 33. Penn St                             4  33. Pittsburgh                          4
 35. Georgia Tech                        3  36. Air Force                           2
 36. Towson                              2  38. Purdue                              1
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C Porter
C Porter
11 months ago

Actually, it was 6 10’s and a 9.0

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