AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn divers will look to punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships this week when they compete in the 2021 NCAA Zone B Diving Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. The first two events will begin Sunday.
"This is probably one of the most mentally fatiguing, challenging events that the divers have to go through," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "If you compare it to swimming, swimming has a chance every time they step on the block all year long to make the NCAA Championships because they do it by a time. In diving, you have one shot. It's one dive at a time at the Zone meet, and you train all year to do your best at this event.
"What we're going to talk about is trusting the process as we did at SECs, compete one dive at a time, focus on doing that dive to the best of your ability and move on to the next, and let the results take care of themselves."
In all, the Tigers will have seven divers competing to earn a spot.
The Auburn men will welcome back junior Conner Pruitt, an NCAA qualifier each of the last two years. Pruitt missed the last two months due to injury but plans to compete on both springboard events at the Zones meet.
In addition to Pruitt, the men will also have senior Logan Andrews, sophomore Skip Donald and freshman Hunter Kebler diving all three events – 1-meter, 3-meter and platform.
On the women's side, sophomore Ashlynn Sullivan and freshman Maia Goldstein will compete on all three events. Goldstein made the final on 1-meter at the SEC Championships last month. Sophomore Gretchen Wensuc will also participate but only on platform, the same event that she earned a bronze medal at the 2020 SEC Championships.
At Zones, the top five women and top four men from each event will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. The number of additional divers advancing to NCAAs differs by each event and gender.
For the women, the top seven on the two springboards will move on while eight will advance on the platform. In the men's competition, Zone B is guaranteed 10 spots on the 1-meter with eight spots reserved for the 3-meter and platform. Additionally, if a diver qualifies in one event, they can compete at NCAAs if they place in the top 12 in any of their remaining events.
SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES CT)
Sunday, March 7
9:30 a.m. – Women's 1-meter (Prelims)
11:30 a.m. – Women's 1-meter (Finals)
1:15 p.m. – Men's 3-meter (Prelims)
3:45 p.m. – Men's 3-meter (Finals)
Monday, March 8
9:30 a.m. – Women's 3-meter (Prelims)
11:30 a.m. – Women's 3-meter (Finals)
1:15 p.m. – Men's Platform (Prelims)
3:45 p.m. – Men's Platform (Finals)
Tuesday, March 9
9:30 a.m. – Women's Platform (Prelims)
11 a.m. – Women's Platform (Finals)
9:30 a.m. – Men's 1-meter (Prelims)
11 a.m. – Men's 1-meter (Finals)