AUBURN, Ala. – In all the success Conner Pruitt had a year ago, he never won a platform event. The drought is over. On Thursday, the junior diver finished first on platform to close out the men's meet at the Auburn Diving Invitational. Pruitt scored 402.90 points, breaking 400 for the first time in his career.
"I was super happy with it," he said. "I haven't won on platform since freshman year. I've been working on a personal best on platforms since freshman year. So I was ecstatic to get that."
"I was real pleased with Conner's performance," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "Anytime you go over 400 that's a solid effort. That's one of our goals. One of his really strong dives was a back three-and-a-half, which we did just sparingly last year. It's a dive he needs to do to compete at this level and at the Olympic Trials."
The Auburn men went 1-2-3 on platform Thursday with freshman David Vargas finishing second and sophomore Skip Donald taking third. Both Vargas (336.80) and Donald (334.20) also set personal bests in the event.
On the women's side, sophomore Ashlynn Sullivan finished third in the 3-meter competition with 326.45 points in the final. It was new personal best for her as well.
"It was good to see her finish her back and reverse two-and-a-halfs with a really clean entry," Shaffer said. "There are still some technique changes she needs to make on those, but I think overall, with the exception of her inward two-and-a-half, everything was where we want it to be. I'm very pleased with her."
Sullivan was one of three Auburn women to place in the top 10. Sophomore Gretchen Wensuc scored 275.35 points in finals to finish ninth while freshman Maia Goldstein took 10th with 270.25 points in the final. Wensuc's prelims score (282.55) was a season best.
The women will wrap up the invitational with platform Saturday at 11 a.m. CT.
"I still think with this group of women, our best event will always be higher," Shaffer said. "So I'm looking forward to seeing everybody compete on tower tomorrow."
Conner Pruitt highlights Day 3 with win on platform
