Dive-by-Dive Scoring / NCAA Championships Central
ATLANTA ââ'¬" Purdue's Joe Cifelli finished 14th among 50 competitors in 3-meter diving Friday at the NCAA Championships to earn Honorable Mention All-America accolades as a freshman.
The Boilermakers were represented by both Max Showalter and Cifelli in the 3-meter prelims Friday. Cifelli finished 15th in the prelims to advance to the consolation final and then finished seventh of nine in the second competition of the day. Showalter placed 20th in the 3-meter prelims and will compete again Saturday from the platforms, which is his top event.
Cifelli's showing on 3-meter gives the Purdue men a diving All-American for the 11th time in the last 12 years. Thursday, he narrowly missed out earning Honorable Mention All-America accolades on 1-meter, finishing 17th in the prelims. The top 16 in the prelims advance to the scoring finals.
Cifelli averaged 61.98 per dive in the prelims, highlighted by a list-high score of 73.5 on his third dive. Unfortunately, he followed that up with his lowest score of the round (40.50). But he earned 60 points on five of his six dives and was able to advance to the consolation final with a score of 371.90.
Showalter was very consistent throughout his 3-meter list, averaging 60.58 per dive. He started strong with back-to-back scores of 66. But the score on his fourth dive (51.15) also held him back a bit. His list score of 363.45 was only 4.15 points behind the two divers that finished tied for 16th.
There were nine divers in the consolation final due to the unique tie for 16th place in the prelims. SMU's Bryce Klein and Mark Anderson of Texas were competing directly against each other and the rest of the consolation final's seven other divers. Anderson finished second in the consolation final and Klein took sixth, one spot ahead of Cifelli. But because Klein was also in a dive-off with Anderson in the consolation final, technically Klein did not have a scoring finish.
Cifelli averaged 60.98 per dive in the consolation final for a list score of 365.85. He earned a list-high score of 82.25 on his fifth dive, but a 50.75 and 33.0 in his two previous rounds, respectively, prevented him from reaching the 400-point mark for the list.
In Thursday's 1-meter prelims, Cifelli rallied over the final three rounds to move into contention to advance to the consolation final. He closed with a list-high score of 63 but was overtaken on the final dive of the sixth round of the prelims for 16th place. Ultimately, Cifelli could not overcome a score of 39 on his third dive.
The platform prelims are set for 12:15 p.m. Saturday.