GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Auburn divers competed in the first two of six events this week at the NCAA Zone B Championships on Sunday. Though no Tigers qualified for the NCAA Championships, three of the six earned a second list.
For the women, freshman Maia Goldstein advanced to the 1-meter final in her first Zone meet and placed 11th with a total of 533.40 points.
"I thought Maia did real well in her first Zone meet," Auburn head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "She made one mistake on her reverse 1-and-a-half in the prelims, which held her back. She came back with a lot stronger second list, so that was encouraging."
By finishing in the top 12, Goldstein can still qualify for NCAAs on 1-meter if she can either make top seven on 3-meter Monday or make top eight in Tuesday's platform event. Sophomore Ashlynn Sullivan just missed the cut on 1-meter, placing 19th overall after prelims.
Junior Conner Pruitt and Sophomore Skip Donald both made it through to the final in the men's 3-meter event Sunday. Pruitt finished 14th with 678.25 points while Donald scored 619.50 points between the two sessions to take 18th.
For Pruitt, it was his first competition since the Auburn Diving Invitational in December.
"With Conner, we just haven't had enough repetitions," Shaffer said. "He fought back in the second list. He was in the top 12, which is where we really needed him to be, and he missed his entry on his double out and dropped him to 14th. He gets a day off to regroup."
Like Sullivan, senior Logan Andrews placed 19th in prelims and just missed a second list. Freshman Hunter Kebler finished 26th in his Zones debut.
The Tigers will be back on the boards Monday looking to secure their spots at the NCAA S&D Championships. The women will be on 3-meter while the men will be diving platform. For Auburn, it will be the same group competing on both sides with the exception of Pruitt who is only taking part in the two springboard events this week.
Prelims for the women's 1-meter event begin at 9:30 a.m. CT followed by finals at 11:30 a.m. The men's platform is set with prelims at 1:15 p.m. and finals at 3:45 p.m.
