University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE DIVERS PREPARE FOR NCAA ZONE B CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 14, 2002 | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 14, 2002
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
The University of Tennessee women's diving team will move one step closer to the NCAA Championships this weekend as the divers will compete in the NCAA Zone B Championships in an attempt to earn a spot at the NCAA meet. The Zone B Championships will be held Friday and Saturday, March 15-16 at the University of Kentucky's Lancaster Aquatic Center.
All four Lady Vol divers will be making the trip to the Bluegrass State courtesy of qualifying scores earned during the regular-season meets and the Southeastern Conference Championships. The four Lady Vols that will be competing this weekend are junior Jaime Sanger (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS), junior Stacy Binyon (Southlake, Texas/Carroll HS), sophomore Kylee Wells (Russiaville, Ind./Western HS) and freshman Lauryn McCalley (Moultrie, Ga./Colquitt County HS).
"We are traveling to Lexington with high hopes and expectations of qualifying as many divers as we can for the NCAA Championships," Tennessee diving coach Dave Parrington said. "Realistically, Lauryn McCalley and Jaime Sanger are favorites to qualify. Kylee Wells would normally be one of those favorites, but I don't really know what to expect from her since she is not quite at full strength after an illness that sidelined her for most of the spring semester."
The Lady Vols are coming off a strong outing at the Southeastern Conference Championships where each of the UT divers that competed made the finals in at least one event. Sanger won her second consecutive one-meter SEC title while also reaching the finals of the three-meter competition. McCalley advanced to the one-meter finals in her first conference meet while Binyon competed in the evening finals of the platform. Wells missed the SEC Championships while recovering from an illness that has kept her out since late January.
The participants from Zone B, which consists of schools throughout the Southeast, will be vying for a total of 13 spots in the NCAA Championships. Approximately 40 divers will be competing this weekend and all earned positions at the zone championship by reaching qualifying scores in meets throughout the year. The top five finishers on the one-meter, the top five on the three-meter and the top three on platform all automatically qualify for the national championship meet. A scale of overall performance in all three events determines the remainder of the 13-person team.
Following the Zone B Championships, the qualifying divers will join Lady Vol swimmer Monica Shannahan at the NCAA Championships, March 21-23, at the Jamail Texas Swimming Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
| Schedule of Events | |
| Friday, March 15 | |
| One-meter | 10 a.m. |
| Saturday, March 16 | |
| Three-meter | 10 a.m. |
| Platform | 6 p.m. |
