AUBURN, Ala. – Three days of the 2025 NCAA Zone B Diving Championships still remain but the Auburn Tigers are already off to a blistering start. Taking full advantage of his home pool, a fourth-place finish in the 1-meter competition on Sunday earned sophomore Talan Blackmon a trip to his first NCAA Championships.
“Coming into this meet, I was definitely nervous,” said Blackmon. “But I’ve worked so hard this year that I knew I had a fighting chance. I just had to put it all together. I needed to give my best when my best was needed and today was that.”
Freshman Ethan Swart can also add 1-meter to his NCAA resume after finishing 12th. The Indiana native only needs a top-eight finish in the 3-meter or top seven on the platform.
Blackmon was as steady as ever in prelims, coming up with a solid 345.70 to sit fifth, earning his second list of six dives. Swart was stout as well, dialing up a 313.05 to sit 15th.
Needing to ramp up the amplitude in the final two dives in finals, Blackmon delivered scoring 57.60 and an even 62.00. The Texas native only needed seventh to qualify but his 682.70 was good enough for fourth.
“We’ve done a ton on mental training this year on top of our normal training,” Blackmon explained. “The opportunity was there for more, I just had to put everything together. I took a couple of extra deep breaths, remembered the deep breathing we’ve done all year long, went with the flow and just executed what was needed.”
“It’s a culmination of all the hard work he’s put into this over the past two years,” said head diving coach John Fox. “I call him Rook because he was the first diver I got her at Auburn. It’s just extremely cool to see The Rook start to come into his own.”
Swart also came up clutch when he needed to most, going 58.50, 59.20, 61.50 and 60.45 on his final four dives to hit the provisional 12th-place on the button with a 657.50.
“He (Swart) has set himself up for success the rest of this week,” Fox said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can get out of him.”
Whit Andrus missed finals by the smallest of margins, finishing 19th by 0.05 points at 302.80. David Hatt would lock up 25th (278.15) and Travis Keith (266.95) grabbed 27th.
Monday brings both the women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter competition. Action begins at 11 a.m. CT.
Below is the remaining schedule of events and the number of spots for each discipline:
Monday, March 10
11 a.m. CT – Women’s 1-meter prelims
1:45 p.m. CT – Women’s 1-meter finals
3:45 p.m. CT – Men’s 3-meter prelims
6 p.m. CT – Men’s 3-meter finals
Tuesday, March 11
11 a.m. CT – Women’s 3-meter prelims
1:30 p.m. CT – Women’s 3-meter finals
3:30 p.m. CT – Men’s Platform prelims
5:15 p.m. CT – Men’s Platform finals
Wednesday, March 12
11 a.m. CT – Women’s Platform prelims
12:30 p.m. CT – Women’s Platform finals
Women
1-meter – 9
3-meter – 7
Platform – 7
Men
3-meter – 8
Platform – 6