March 14, 2014
Day Two Results | Live Dive-by-Dive Scoring & Results
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two more Purdue divers qualified for the NCAA Championships Friday as Layne Rogers and Michelle Cabassol both finished among the top three in a springboard diving event on the second day of the Zone C Championships.
Rogers took second in the men's 1-meter competition and Cabassol placed third in the women's 3-meter event. They joined Jamie Bissett as Casey Matthews as Boilers to qualify for the NCAAs Championships at the three-day diving meet being held at Ohio State this week. All four divers have advanced to the NCAAs for the second year in a row.
Rogers was the runner-up from the 1-meter springboard after placing eighth in the 3-meter finals Thursday. He improved on his preliminary-round score (324.80) by 35.55 points in the finals to finish the day with a combined total of 685.15. Indiana's Emad Abdelatif topped by Rogers by only one tenth of a point in the overall scoring. Forty-two men competed Friday from the 1-meter springboard and the top three advanced to the NCAA Championships. Bissett finished fourth.
Cabassol took third from the 3-meter springboard after placing 10th from the 1-meter finals Thursday. She improved on her preliminary-round score (322.50) by 21 points in the finals to finish the day with a combined total of 666. Forty-three women competed from the 3-meter springboard Friday.
The top four women's finishers from the 3-meter were scheduled to qualify for the NCAA Championships. However, two of the top five -- Southern Illinois' Kaixuan Zhang (first) and Illinois State's Wenting Zhang (fifth) -- earned their NCAA bids Thursday from the 1-meter. Kentucky's Christa Cabot, Cabassol and Oakland's Tricia Grant finished 2-3-4 Friday. With Cabot also taking fourth from the 1-meter Thursday, the additional NCAA berth for the women in Zone C rolls over to the third-place finisher in the platform competition Saturday.
Purdue's Mary Beth Dunnichay took sixth from the 3-meter Friday with a score of 621.75. She would be fifth in line for an NCAA bid Saturday, ranking behind the top three finishers from the platform towers as well as Michigan's Carey Chen (fourth in 1-meter Thursday). With Dunnichay not competing from the platform this season, she would need at least two divers that already qualified for NCAAs (or one and Chen) to be among the top three in the platform competition.
Matthews (ninth) and Alec Back (14th) also ranked among the top 18 in prelims to advance to the finals Friday for Purdue.
Action concludes at 11 a.m. Saturday with both genders diving from the platform towers. Nate Cox, Sean Mokhtari, MacKenzie Tweardy and Back are the only Boilers expected to compete Saturday.
NCAA Zone C Diving Championships
Day Two Qualifiers for NCAA Championships
Women's 3-Meter (Top 4 Finishers)
Kaixuan Zhang, Southern Illinois*
Christa Cabot, Kentucky
Michelle Cabassol, Purdue
Tricia Grant, Oakland
Wenting Zhang, Illinois State*
Third Place Finisher in Saturday's Platform Finals Now Earns NCAAs Berth
*Already Qualified for NCAAs Thursday
Men's 1-Meter (Top 3 Finishers)
Emad Abdelatif, Indiana
Layne Rogers, Purdue
Joseph Coumos, Notre Dame
Purdue Divers in Women's 3-Meter
Michelle Cabassol, 666.00 - Finished 3rd in Finals (343.50 Finals, 322.50 Prelims)
Mary Beth Dunnichay, 621.75 - Finished 6th in Finals (333.30 Finals, 288.45 Prelims)
Casey Matthews, 587.20 - Finished 9th in Finals (296.70 Finals, 290.50 Prelims); Qualified for NCAAs Thursday
Purdue Divers in Men's 1-Meter
Layne Rogers, 685.15 - Finished 2nd in Finals (360.35 Finals, 324.80 Prelims)
Jamie Bissett, 671.45 - Finished 4th in Finals (318.20 Finals, 353.25 Prelims); Qualified for NCAAs Thursday
Alec Back, 576.30 - Finished 14th in Finals (299.00 Finals, 277.30 Prelims)
Nate Cox, 262.45- Finished 29th in Prelims