Edison, NJ- Sean Molloy and Kimberly Tobias from Marist, Ian O'Rourke
from Niagara, and Brendan Cavallaro and Trevor Hiller from Rider will all be
heading to the 2012 NCAA Zone A
Championships hosted by the University at Buffalo beginning on Friday, March 9
through Sunday, March 11.
O'Rourke, from Grand Island, New York is making his fourth appearance at the
Zone A Championships, competing in the one- and three-meter dives as well as
the platform event. Last year, the senior qualified for the one-meter
finals after finishing ninth in the preliminaries. In the final field of
18, O’Rourke placed 11th with a combined score of 540.50. He
did not make it past the preliminary round of both the three-meter and platform
events.
Cavallaro, from Middleboro, Massachusetts will be making his third trip to
the NCAA Zone meet and Hiller, from Galloway Twp., New Jersey will be making
his first trip to the regional meet.
Molloy, from Slingerlands, New York will be making his first trip to
NCAA Zones, along with Tobias, from San Jose, California who will also be
making her first trip to the regional meet.
Qualification for the NCAA Championships is dependent on a diver's performance
at the zone meet. In this year's Zone A there will be four spots available to
earn a NCAA berth. Claiming a title on either the one-meter, three-meter or
platform dive gives a diver an automatic ticket. If a diver places first in two
events, the second place diver will receive a bid. If three individual divers
claim each event and there are no ties, the fourth bid will go to the highest
cumulative score.
After the preliminary rounds on Friday and Saturday morning, the top 18 divers
advance to the finals which will be Friday and Saturday afternoon.
Platform diving will take place on Sunday.
Diving is set to begin at 12 p.m. each day.
