By Jason Marsteller
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 10. TEXAS' Jessica Livingston used a huge fourth-round dive of 91.20 points and closed it out in the fifth round to win with a 357.85 tally. That effort gave the Longhorns their fourth tower title, and tied them with Stanford for the most in NCAA history.
Meanwhile, Lindsay Weigle of Indiana came a close second with 356.55 points but could not overcome the incredible fourth-round dive of all 9.5s and a 10 of Livingston. Defending champion Taryn Ignacio of Kentucky took third with 332.80 points.
The 1.30 points separating Livingston and Weigle easily broke the NCAA record for the smallest margin of victory in a tower event previously held by Eileen Richetelli of Stanford (530.95) beating Cinnamon Woods of Michigan (532.20) by 7.75 points in 1993.
With the team title not in doubt, Auburn moved to 505 points while Arizona remained in second with 443 points. California (332.5) and Stanford (315) were third and fourth, while Georgia is still in fifth with 258 points.
NCAA Division I Champ. Meet 3/10/2007 – 21:11PM
NCAA Women's D1 Championships – 3/8/2007 to 3/10/2007
Event 20 Women Platform Diving
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Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== A – Final ===
1 Livingston, Jessica JR TEX 350.20 357.85 20
2 Weigle, Lindsay SR IND 326.30 356.55 17
3 Ignacio, Taryn SR KY 303.05 332.80 16
4 Miller, Amanda SR PUR 312.30 314.50 15
5 Bounds, Heather SR Miami 309.50 313.25 14
6 Viola, Brittany FR Miami 294.55 285.50 13
7 Saucier, Hali SR LSU 285.30 283.95 12
8 Ware, Rachel FR LSU 280.20 244.75 11
=== B – Final ===
9 Seagraves, Lynnsey SR AUB 272.60 300.05 9
10 Van Katwijk, Ginni JR HU 252.75 294.75 7
11 Retrum, Kari JR KY 255.15 274.40 6
12 Popp, Kimberly JR USC 256.10 268.55 5
13 Schofield, Tess SO UCLA 265.10 262.60 4
14 Karp, Shana FR STAN 258.50 242.00 3
15 Salamone, Kara Jayne SO TEX 246.35 225.60 2
16 DeMond, Michelle JR PRIN 266.85 214.00 1
=== Preliminaries ===
17 Chapman, Heather SR IND 244.70
18 Melnychuk, Kendra SO MO 235.55
19 Yarrison, Mary JR TEX 224.05
20 Loukas, Christina JR IND 222.80
21 Leroy, Lauren JR TENN 214.70
22 Wetzel, Emily SO PUR 210.65
23 Feldman, Brittney FR IND 187.60
Women – Team Rankings – Through Event 20
1. Auburn 505 2. Arizona 443
3. California 332.5 4. Stanford 315
5. Georgia 258 6. Texas 214
7. Texas A&M 186 8. Florida 177
9. Michigan 163 10. Tennessee 113
11. Indiana 107.5 12. Kentucky 88
13. California, Los Angeles 55.5 14. Arizona State 55
15. Florida State 52 16. Minnesota 49
17. Miami 48 18. Southern California 47
18. Purdue 47 20. Virginia Tech 45
21. Louisiana State 44 22. Houston 38
23. Princeton 36 23. Wisconsin 36
25. Southern Methodist 34 26. Pennsylvania State 30.5
27. Notre Dame 25 28. Florida Atlantic 23
29. Oregon State 21 30. North Carolina 18
30. Gardner-Webb 18 32. Hawaii 15
33. California, Irvine 11 34. Washington State 10
35. Washington 9 36. South Carolina 6
36. Syracuse 6 36. Rutgers 6
39. Virginia 4 40. Brigham Young 2
41. Utah 1 41. Northwestern 1
41. Richmond 1