AUBURN, Ala. – For Auburn sophomore Conner Pruitt, the last person he wants to lose to is a diver from Alabama. So after finishing second to Alabama's Zhenwei Li in the 1-meter event Tuesday, he responded with 404.10 points to beat Li and win the 3-meter event Wednesday on what was the third day of the Auburn Diving Invitational.
"It was nice to piece everything together," Pruitt said. "The past two meets, I haven't hit every dive. I've missed one dive. So it was nice to hit all six going into championship season."
Pruitt missed setting a new personal best by less than a point, but he surpassed 80 points on his third dive, making it the highest scoring dive he's ever gotten.
"It was really good to see him step up in the finals," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "His first two dives were a little bit average. He really needed a good third dive, his reverse three-and-a-half, and he got 80 points. That was the best dive of the contest, and it got him going."
Freshman Skip Donald finished 10th in the finals with 302.10 points, but his score of 336.70 in the prelims was a personal best and earned him an NCAA zone qualifying score. Now all six Auburn divers on both the men's and women's side have received a zone qualifying score this season.
The women capped their three-day meet with platform Wednesday. Senior Alison Maillard finished second in the finals with 256.15 points, giving her finishes of first (1-meter), second (platform) and third (3-meter) over the course of three days.
Freshman Ashlynn Sullivan earned a personal best on platform with 237.70 points to finish seventh overall. It was also a zone qualifying score for Sullivan.
"It was great to see Ashlynn step up and get a zone score on tower," Shaffer said. "Really solid performance. We just have to up her degree of difficulty for her to be a little bit more competitive.
"We're getting better as a team. There's a lot of work yet to be done, but I think the other important part of this meet is the meet management that we're going to have to learn and repeat when we go to the SEC championships and it's a five-day meet."
The men will wrap up competition Thursday with platform, beginning at 11 a.m. CT.
Admission is free to the public. Live results will be available through divemeets.com.