By Jason Marsteller<\/p>\n
PHOENIX, Arizona, February 21. WITH NCAA Division I Championships soon upon us, SwimmingWorldMagazine.com took a peek at the often-overlooked weekend that can become a major factor during the championship season \u2013 Zone Diving Qualifying. These meets will take place the first weekend in March to pick the divers that will head to NCAAs.<\/p>\n
For those that might not understand the set-up, divers must qualify through a separate meet instead of just meeting a set standard like swimmers. Since diving is subjectively scored, these zone meets drastically reduce the impact that any given set of diving coaches scoring diving at dual meets can have on the NCAA meet by forcing zone-cut divers to compete against each other regionally.<\/p>\n
Based on the NCAA Championship Handbook, the following zone spots have been allocated to advance divers to NCAAs<\/p>\n
Men\/Women:
\nNortheast Region (A) \u2013 4 men\/4 women
\nSouth Region (B) \u2013 8\/11
\nCentral Region (C) \u2013 7\/9
\nMidwest Region (D) \u2013 7\/7
\nWest Region (E) \u2013 9\/10<\/p>\n
In the men's meet, the West Region, with divers primarily coming from the Pacific 10, the Mountain West and the Western Athletic Conference, has an advantage. Meanwhile, divers from the South Region \u2013 mostly the SEC \u2013 along with the West Region will have a much larger contingent for the women.<\/p>\n
One might ask how these spots are awarded.<\/p>\n
They are based on a rich get richer and the poor get poorer set up where zone divers earn more spots for their zone based on last year's success.<\/p>\n
The following order of priority is used to determine who advances through zone qualifying to the NCAA Championships based on the allotted spots per zone:<\/p>\n
1. Winner of Platform
\n2. Winner of Three-meter
\n3. Winner of One-meter
\n4. Second-place Three-meter
\n5. Second-place One-meter
\n6. Third-place Three-meter
\n7. Third-place One-meter
\n8. Second-place Platform
\n9. Fourth-place Three-meter
\n10. Fourth-place One-meter
\n11. Fifth-place Three-meter
\n12. Third-place Platform
\n13. Fifth-place One-meter
\n14. Sixth-place Three-meter
\n15. Sixth-place One-meter
\n16. Fourth-place Platform
\n17. Seventh-place Three-meter
\n18. Seventh-place One-meter
\n19. Eighth-place Three-meter
\n20. Fifth-place Platform
\n21. Eighth-place One-meter
\n22. Ninth-place Three-meter
\n23. Ninth-place One-meter
\n24. Sixth-place Platform
\n25. 10th-place Three-meter
\n26. 10th-place One-meter
\n27. 11th-place Three-meter
\n28. Seventh-place Platform
\n29. 11th-place One-meter
\n30. 12th-place Three-meter
\n31. 12th-place One-meter<\/p>\n
Where things get a bit tricky is when someone doubles or triples up priority spots. The previous system of handling doubles during a four-year experiment that ended this past year confused a lot of people. Luckily, diving coaches across the country decided to return to the much simpler system which began in 1995.<\/p>\n
Under this system, whenever a diver earns a priority spot, the rest of their performances from the weekend are skipped over to the next priority spot.<\/p>\n
Simply put, if you have an allotment of eight divers in your zone, then you go down the priority listing until you have eight different divers.<\/p>\n
For those chart junkies, here is a grid format of the above information that is presented in the NCAA Championship Handbook<\/p>\n
Event Finish, One-Meter, Three-Meter, Platform
\n1, 3, 2, 1
\n2, 5, 4, 8
\n3, 7, 6, 12
\n4, 10, 9, 16
\n5, 13, 11, 20
\n6, 15, 14, 24
\n7, 18, 17, 28
\n8, 21, 19
\n9, 23, 22
\n10, 26, 25
\n11, 29, 27
\n12, 31, 30<\/p>\n
Special thanks to Wayne Burrow of the NCAA, Michele Mitchell of the University of Arizona and Mike Brown of the University of Hawaii for taking time out to help explain the selection process.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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