NCAA Women’s Diving Preview: How Zone Scores Project To Impact The Team Race

2023 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 15-18, 2023
• Allan Jones Aquatic Center–Knoxville, Tennessee
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Pick ’em Contest

Just as we score out the psych sheets every year prior to the NCAA Championships, we’ve decided to do a similar exercise with the diving events to give us an idea of where the points might come from this week at Women’s NCAAs in Knoxville.

When we score out the psych sheets, we know things aren’t going to go exactly as projected for a myriad of factors, with things such as taper, nerves, event schedules and everything else playing into how swimmers perform on the big stage.

In diving, there’s a different set of variables at play, as the NCAA qualifiers competed at five different Zone meets last week, meaning there were five different sets of judges. Therefore, comparing scores across multiple meets is far from being an exact, definitive ranking, but it does give us some indication of who the favorites are heading into NCAAs.

Below, find the top 16 scores in each of the three women’s diving events across the five Zone meets (using finals results only), and how they would stack up against one another in an NCAA scoring format (with their hypothetical point total included).

WOMEN’S 1-METER

On 1-meter, Arizona’s Delaney Schnell is ranked first with a bullet with her score of 696.00 from Zone E, while Miami’s Mia Vallee and South Carolina’s Brooke Schultz had near-identical scores from Zone B to rank second and third.

Vallee won the NCAA title last season with a score of 365.75 (different scoring format than Zones), while Schnell was fifth (339.05) and Schultz took ninth (331.95).

WOMEN’S 3-METER

Indiana’s Anne Fowler was 20th and didn’t score on 3-meter last season at NCAAs, but produced the highest point total at the Zone meets this year with a tally of 737.90, edging out Vallee (736.50) and Texas Olympian Hailey Hernandez (733.10).

The top three finishers from the 2022 NCAAs aren’t competing, including Indiana’s Tarrin Gilliland, who is listed as a junior this year but wasn’t at Zones. So Fowler will be looking to fill the void for the Hoosiers, who also had Kristen Hayden finish second last year.

The top returner is Schnell, who ranks fifth with her Zones score but is within 10.1 points of Fowler.

WOMEN’S PLATFORM

Schnell will surely be the favorite on platform, having posted the top Zones score by a wide margin after finishing second at NCAAs last year to Gilliland.

Texas’ Jordan Skilken and Janie Boyle may not have posted the top scores at Zones, but they were third and fourth in the event last season at NCAAs and should be relied upon for some crucial points for the Longhorns.

SCORING THE ZONES RESULTS – TEAM STANDINGS

Using the Zones scores (and acknowledging it’s an imperfect projection), the University of Texas projects to score 66 points across the three diving events, which would bring their combined total (including the scored swimming psych sheets) up to 453.75.

Virginia ranked first on the scored psych sheets with 464.5 points, but the Cavs have diver Elizabeth Kaye in position to score nine points, which would put them at a theoretical total of 473.5, just under 20 points clear of Texas.

The LSU Tigers, who have been rejuvenated in the pool with the addition of superstar Maggie MacNeil, are projected for 58 diving points, led by Chiara Pellacani‘s 30, which could potentially push them into the top 10 if everything falls right.

After a strong SEC performance, LSU ranked 12th on the scored swimming psych sheets, but adding in diving, the Tigers jump up into ninth, passing SEC champion Florida on the way.

Below, find the projected team scores if we combine the scored psych sheets and the Zone diving rankings:

PROJECTED SCORES – PSYCH SHEETS + ZONE RESULTS