ATHENS, Ga. – After clinching their spot at the NCAA Championships on Monday, Conner Pruitt and Alison Maillard both added to their event list at NCAAs with two more solid performances at the Zone B Diving Championships on Tuesday.
Pruitt, who finished seventh in the 1-meter competition with 642.65 points, will now compete on both 1-meter and 3-meter at the NCAA Championships.
The sophomore led the field coming out of prelims and was joined by teammates Logan Andrews and Skip Donald in the finals for the second straight day. However, Andrews and Donald just missed the cut for NCAAs as they finished 12th and 16th respectively. The duo will have one more chance to advance with Wednesday's platform event.
"I'm really proud of their effort today on the 1-meter boards," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "All three had a strong first list with Conner winning the prelims, Skip being eighth and Logan ninth. All three of them weren't as sharp on the second list, which was obviously disappointing. I think for Skip and Logan, they may have got caught up into looking at their places and changing their focus from the execution and the process of each of their dives."
The Auburn women were once again led by Maillard who earned 571.25 points between her two lists on 3-meter to finish fifth overall for the second day in a row. Like Pruitt, Maillard has now secured her spot on both springboards at the NCAA Championships.
"Alison was pretty solid," Shaffer said. "Her second list was a little bit sharper than her first, but again, it's a long day for them and we accomplished what we needed to. We get to dive 3-meter and 1-meter now at the NCAA Championships."
Freshmen Ashlynn Sullivan and Gretchen Wensuc improved on their finishes from Monday but still came up short in prelims. Sullivan missed the cut for finals by two spots, finishing 20th with 268.50 points, while Wensuc placed 22nd with 263.10 points.
"I thought Ashlynn and Gretchen trained well and were prepared for the meet," Shaffer said. "They each missed one dive that really kept them from getting a second list. Again, for them it's the experience that they can learn from and move forward. We have another event tomorrow with platform. Hopefully we can finish strong on that on the guys' and girls' side."
The platform competition will begin at 9 a.m. CT on Wednesday with the men's prelims.
RESULTS
Men's 1-meter
7. Conner Pruitt – 642.65
12. Logan Andrews – 615.30
16. Skip Donald – 579.35
Women's 3-meter
5. Alison Maillard – 571.25
20. Ashlynn Sullivan – 268.50 (Prelims)
22. Gretchen Wensuc – 263.10 (Prelims)