For UT’s men’s and women’s diving teams, the final stop in the road toward the NCAA Championships begins at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center next week.
Teams from around the region, including half the SEC, will send divers to compete in the NCAA Zone B Championships in one or more of the three events, 1-meter and 3-meter springboard and the platform.
Unlike collegiate swimming, in which a qualification time can be reached throughout the season, in diving the only way to qualify for the NCAA Championship is through competing and succeeding at the Zone Championships. In Zone B, which is one of five zones nationally in which all NCAA swimming and diving teams are broken up into, only 10 women and five men can advance to compete in the limited pool in the NCAA Championship, of which only 41 women and 35 men compete.
To complicate matters, the determination of the 10 female divers and the five male divers (a number determined by the performance of the past year’s divers from Zone B) works its way through a complicated series of priority matches.
Regardless of the jargon, one objective about this weekend, as emphasized by two-time SEC Diver of the Year Tori Lamp, is that the path to NCAAs runs through the Zone Championships.
“No matter how you’ve done all year, beside having to qualify for Zones, it doesn’t matter,” said Lamp, a redshirt junior. “If you’re sick or hurt that weekend, … then that’s it. You only have one chance to qualify. It doesn’t matter if I’d won the conference or not, I still have to show up at this meet and qualify.”
For Lamp, this amount of pressure makes Zones a unique meet.
“It’s the most stressful,” she said. “Once you get to NCAAs, there’s nowhere else to go, so you want to go out, do your best and enjoy the process. But at Zones, it’s really stressful because you want to qualify.”
The uniqueness of this meet is an opinion shared by head diving coach Dave Parrington.
“I’m a big time competitor and I’ll admit, this is not my favorite meet,” he said. “… It’s a one shot deal. We could have an Olympic Gold Medalist, and if they’re sick, tough luck.”
Competing for the Vols on the women’s side will be Lamp, senior Jodie McGroarty and freshman Samantha Lera, and for the men, seniors Brent Sterling, a two-time NCAA qualifier, and Jordan Mauney will take to the boards.
For the women, Parrington has high expectations.
“Tori and Jodie have been there before and would be considered strong candidates to return,” he said. “… It would probably be an upset if they didn’t. And as for Samantha Lera, our freshman, had an outstanding SECs for a freshman and I expect her to be in the mix.”
As for the men, however, who face a tougher road with fewer available qualifying slots, Parrington is less certain.
“There are going to be some All-Americans left home at this meet,” he said. “… But with the nature of this meet you never know. There’s always someone whose not supposed to qualify and does, and there’s always someone that should that doesn’t.”
In a meet like this, which is seemingly centered on individual accomplishments, the team element cannot be ignored.
“It comes down to personal performance really, because everyone else is trying to get their own spots,” Lamp said. “But it can be strategic because you want your teammates to qualify. … And once you make it, you worry about them.”
Competition begins Monday, March 11 at 11 a.m. with the men’s 1-meter and continues later in the day at 3:30 p.m. with the women’s 1-meter.
