2017 NCAA Zone Diving
- Zones A, B, D & E: Monday, March 6 – Wednesday, March 8
- Zone C: Thursday, March 9 – Saturday, March 11
- Host schools:
- Zone A: Virginia Tech
- Zone B: Auburn
- Zone C: Indiana
- Zone D: Missouri
- Zone E: Northern Arizona
- NCAA selection primer
Miami swept both titles on day 1 of the Zone B diving meet, while defending NCAA champs Georgia qualified two women to dive at NCAAs.
Wallace Layland won women’s 3-meter and Briadam Herrera men’s 1-meter as both booked their tickets and reimbursement to NCAAs. Behind them, a few more big names earned eligibility for the national meet.
2016 NCAA 1-meter champ Liam Stone earns a reimbursement bid for Tennessee, though he did finish second to Herrera in the next step of his title defense. Herrera was 5th last year at NCAAs.
The Georgia women added two divers in their pursuit of back-to-back NCAA titles. Olivia Ball is in (though not with reimbursement status yet) and McKensi Austin also earned eligibility for the big show. On the men’s side, Florida was the highest-ranked program to qualify a diver. Samuel Smith is in for the Gators.
The full qualifying list is below. We’ll continue updating this chart as more events happen this week.
| Priority | Finisher | Women | Men |
| 1 | 3-meter Champ | Wallace Layland, MIA | |
| 2 | 1-meter Champ | Briadam Herrera, MIA | |
| 3 | Platform Champ | ||
| 4 | 3-meter 2nd | Elissa Dawson, UNC | |
| 5 | 1-meter 2nd | Liam Stone, TENN | |
| 6 | Platform 2nd | ||
| 7 | 3-meter 3rd | Alison Maillard, AUB | |
| 8 | 1-meter 3rd | Jack Nyquist, UNC | |
| 9 | Platform 3rd | ||
| 10 | 3-meter 4th | Rachel Rubadue, TENN | |
| 11 | 1-meter 4th | Charles Clifton, UGA | |
| 12 | Platform 4th | ||
| 13 | 3-meter 5th | Molly Carlson, FSU | |
| 14 | 1-meter 5th | Sean Burston, UNC | |
| 15 | Platform 5th | ||
| 16 | 3-meter 6th | Olivia Ball, UGA | |
| 17 | 1-meter 6th | Jordan Gotro, SCAR | |
| 18 | Platform 6th | ||
| 19 | 3-meter 7th | Julia Vincent, SCAR | |
| 20 | 1-meter 7th | Samuel Smith, FL | |
| 21 | Platform 7th | ||
| 22 | 3-meter 8th | Victoria Moretti, FAU | |
| 23 | 1-meter 8th | Evan Moretti, DUKE | |
| 24 | Platform 8th | — | |
| 25 | 3-meter 9th | McKensi Austin, UGA | |
| 26 | 1-meter 9th | — | |
| 27 | Platform 9th | — | |
| 28 | 3-meter 10th | — | |
| 29 | 1-meter 10th | — | |
| 30 | Platform 10th | — | — |
(Athletes in bold are locked in for NCAA reimbursement. Athletes who have doubled up on qualifying spots are noted with a line through their lower priority slot.)
NCAA ZONE QUALIFYING PROCEDURES
From our refresher post, which you can find here.
Divers qualify for the NCAA Championships through Zone Meets spread across the country. Each zone earns a set number of NCAA qualifying spots based on the performances of that Zone at NCAAs in the past.
Here are the qualifying spots for each event in each zone:
WOMEN
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| Zone B | 10 | 9 | 7 |
| Zone C | 8 | 9 | 6 |
| Zone D | 7 | 7 | 11 |
| Zone E | 11 | 9 | 11 |
MEN
| 1M | 3M | PLATFORM | |
| Zone A | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Zone B | 8 | 10 | 9 |
| Zone C | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| Zone D | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| Zone E | 9 | 5 | 7 |
According to the rules set in 2015 that allowed more divers into the meet, any diver who lands in the qualifying spots for their zone earns a spot to compete in the NCAA Championships. If the diver earns eligibility in one event, they can automatically compete in any of the other two events at NCAAs as long as they finished in the top 12 in their zone in that event.
The NCAA made a distinction between “eligible” and “reimbursed” athletes. Divers qualifying outside of the reimbursement spots will not have their travel, lodging, or meet expenses covered by the NCAA. Instead the individual school must decide if they’re willing to pay the bill themselves to give that diver an opportunity to participate in the NCAA Championships.
| WOMEN | MEN | |
| Zone A | 5 | 5 |
| Zone B | 9 | 9 |
| Zone C | 8 | 6 |
| Zone D | 8 | 9 |
| Zone E | 11 | 6 |
A priority chart determines who gets the reimbursement spots. The first priority spot is taken by the winner of each event beginning with the 3-meter champ, followed by the 1-meter champ and then the platform champ. If an athlete wins two events, they will still only take up one slot which means the NCAA will keep adding rows to this chart until the zone meet reimbursement quota is met.