AUBURN, Ala. – On the first day of the Auburn Diving Invitational, the host Tigers started strong with a first-place finish from senior Alison Maillard in the 1-meter competition Monday.
Maillard, a two-time SEC Diver of the Week this season and NCAA All-American last year, nearly set the school record with 330.90 points in the prelims. She then scored 319.80 points in the finals to finish 17 points ahead of the second-place diver.
"It's nice to be on my boards," Maillard said. "I was just able to relax and focus on the corrections that we've been working on. In prelims especially, I was able to capitalize on that and be a little bit sharper. In finals, I needed to be a little bit sharper on my entries and those things that we've been working on. But it seemed to come along today.
"She really stepped up," added Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "I thought she really started to do some of the things that we've been practicing in a meet situation. That was encouraging to see. Her final list was not quite as sharp as prelims, and we want to get to the position where you do a great list to get to the finals and then you raise your game."
Maillard's prelim score of 330.90 was a season-high in the 1-meter event.
Freshmen Ashlynn Sullivan and Gretchen Wensuc also competed and finished 16th and 17th respectively out of 24 divers in the prelims. Sullivan advanced to the finals where she improved her score and finished 15th overall with 235 points.
"This meet for them is just learning and gaining experience on a prelim/final type of meet like we're going to see at conference," Shaffer said. "I look forward to them raising their game a little bit tomorrow for 3-meter and tower on Wednesday."
The women's 3-meter event is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 3 p.m. CT from the James E. Martin Aquatics Center. Prior to that, the men will begin competition with the 1-meter event at 11 a.m. CT.
Admission is free to the public. Live results will be available through divemeets.com.