March 16, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Freshman David Colturi clobbered the competition Sunday at the NCAA Region C Diving Zones in Columbus, Ohio and took down a three-year-old varsity record in the process.
Colturi won the Region C platform title with a 12-dive score of 849.60 points, which was 72.60 points better than the runner-up score of Ohio State's Sean Moore.
Colturi won the six-dive prelim round with a then-personal best score of 402.00 points, but topped that performance with a second six-dive score in finals of 447.60 points.
Colturi earned well over 80 points on his fourth and sixth dives, which were both accomplished from a height of 10 meters. The rookie totaled 82.50 points on his 3 1/2 backward somersault and 86.70 points on his final dive, which was a 2 1/2 backward somersault with 1 1/2 twists.
Colturi's new varsity record erased the former standard of 414.25 points set by Steven LoBue in 2005.
Colturi's platform victory sends him to his first NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships, which begin in two weeks in Federal Way, Wash.
The Sylvania, Ohio, native will be joined from Region C by Ryan Jefferson, Wes Wieser and Moore of Ohio State, Indiana's Taylor Roberts and Landon Marzullo and Notre Dame's Michael Bulfin.
2007 All-American and Boilermaker Zach Schultz will not be making a return trip to NCAA's. He placed eighth off tower with 583.95 points.
Region C's female competitors are currently in their platform preliminary round. A full recap of their results will be posted later this afternoon.
Live results from all five of the NCAA's regional zone meets are available through divemeets.com.