March 21, 2006
COLUMBUS, OHIO - Senior Carrie McCambridge qualified for her third straight trip to the NCAA Championships after placing third off the 1-meter springboard Friday at the NCAA Region C Diving Zones.
McCambridge finished with 600.00 points, finishing behind Iowa's Nacilea Underwood (626.95) and Indiana's Christina Loukas (615.80). McCambridge's placing earned her the 6th of 11 allocations the NCAA has reserved for Region C's women's field.
Junior Steven LoBue also placed third Friday in 3-meter competition, but because the NCAA has given only five allocations to the Region C men, he is currently on the outside looking in with the sixth spot.
LoBue finished the 12-dive session with 653.30 points, coming in behind the IU tandem of Taylor Roberts (677.35) and Ryan Fagan (671.45).
Purdue diving coach Adam Soldati believes LoBue will earn one of the three remaining qualifying spots Saturday off the 1-meter springboard by finishing either first or second. Another way for LoBue to move up is if Roberts and Fagan again finish first and second off the 1-meter.
Amanda Miller and Josh Karshen also advanced to Friday's finals, but will need to place higher over the next two days in order to qualify for the national championships.
Miller was ninth off the 1-meter with 532.05 points and Karshen was seventh off the 3-meter with 615.15 points.
Saturday, the men and women swap springboard competitions. The men will dive off the 1-meter and the women off the 3-meter beginning at 11 a.m. Live results of the meet can be found via the front page of ohiostatebuckeyes.com.