KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Auburn men and women both closed out the Tennessee Diving Invitational with the platform competition Sunday.
On the women's side, the Tigers had three divers finish in the top six. Senior Alison Maillard scored a team-high 252.50 points to place second. She was followed by freshman Ashlynn Sullivan and Gretchen Wensuc who finished fifth and sixth respectively. Both Sullivan (230.10) and Wensuc (229.80) earned NCAA zone qualifying scores.
"Alison was second but much better with regards to hitting all of her dives," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "Ashlynn and Gretchen were fifth and sixth. Two solid performances again on tower. Any time you get a zone qualifying score, we're moving in the right direction."
Sophomore Conner Pruitt once again led the Auburn men with 310.95 points to finish second overall. Freshman Skip Donald also put together a strong performance, scoring 276.75 points to place eighth in the field of 23 divers.
After three days of competition, the Tigers earned a total of 12 top-10 finishes between six divers. Pruitt snagged the team's only win in the 3-meter event, but he and Maillard finished third or better in five of the six events.
"Overall, I'd say the meet was a success in that it forced us to get back into it after our Christmas break," Shaffer said. "It gave us another opportunity to see what the competition is. We did some good things. Unfortunately, not all the good things that we did were in the competition, but I like the direction we're headed. I like the attitude that the kids have.
"Now it's just training on a daily basis to improve our weaknesses and become a little bit more consistent in scoring across the board for all dives in all events."
The Auburn divers will rejoin swimming next Saturday when the men's and women's teams travel to Georgia Tech for a dual meet. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. CT.