Dec. 16, 2015
Justin Youtsey ran away with the men's 3-meter diving title on Wednesday evening at the Auburn Fall Diving Invitational, topping the 400-point mark for the second time on the day. Youtsey, who posted a 405.00 in prelims, scored a 426.85 in finals to win the event by over 58 points.
"What a great list," Auburn head coach Jeff Shaffer said. "That really sets (Justin) up well and should give him a great deal of confidence."
Youtsey had gone into the finals in first after his then-personal best 405.00. He continued his torrid diving in the evening session, scoring a 72.00, 79.05, 76.50, 64.50, 60.00 and 74.80 on his six dive list.
"I just followed the same old routine that I have been doing and something clicked today and I kept rolling with it," Youtsey said. "I have always wanted to be in the 400-club as a diver. This morning after my 405 I thought that was pretty good. Then I just kept on rolling with the same momentum and followed through and did even better (tonight)."
Maddie Cox, who had a personal-best 289.50 in Wednesday's 1-meter prelims, was just over a point behind Taylor Zablocki (271.90) of Alabama with a 270.65 to place second.
Pete Turnham, who was fourth after prelims with a 324.30, finished third (334.10) on the 3-meter while Scott Lazeroff, who had come out of prelims in second with a 354.95, finished fifth (308.35).
Carly Scheper (245.60) took eighth and Miranda Telmanik (223.65) finished 11th on the 1-meter.
"Overall it was a good first day and we are looking forward to tomorrow and then platform (on Friday)," Shaffer said.
The competition continues on Thursday at 11 am with prelims of the men's 1-meter and the women's 3-meter. Finals will be contested at 5 pm. Live scoring can be found on divemeets.com.