University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Divers Head to NCAA Zone Qualifier
March 09, 2005 | Men's Swimming & Diving
March 9, 2005
The Tennessee men's diving team starts competition Friday at the NCAA Zone B Diving qualifier in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
Tennessee looked to have one of the strongest diving squads in the nation prior to the 2005 campaign but with various misfortunes the tides have turned against the Vols favor.
The Vols have sustained a rash of injuries to slow down their progress. Sophomore Jevon Tarantino, the only diver currently at full strength, had an emergency appendectomy to take him out of training for nearly two months during the peak time for conditioning.
Junior John Venditti and freshman Ryan Rincon have also had their share of injuries. Venditti had wrist surgery that slowed his progress towards competition, and Rincon fractured his wrist while warming up for the dual meet against Georgia Jan. 22.
Rincon was cleared to continue diving last week but has not regained his full arsenal of competition dives that he had before the injury. He could possibly compete for the Vols this weekend on a short list of dives
"Certainly with the rash of injuries and misfortunes that have occured during the course of the season, I'm not willing to take anything for granted in this meet," UT diving coach Dave Parrington said. "But I am looking at this competition very optimistically with as positive an attitude as we can as a team. I would like to think that this will be our chance to break out of the adversity we've had all year long."
Tarantino is preparing to take on the task of defending his 1-meter title from a year ago, and the path leads through the Zone B qualifier. He has to qualify on one board, whether it be the platform, the 3- or the 1-meter boards, to qualify for NCAAs. Once qualified, as long as he competes on the other boards at the Zone B qualifier, he will be qualified for the other boards as well for the NCAA championships March 24-26.
"The NCAA Zone qualifying meet is in my mind the most nerve-racking competition we attend all year," Parrington said. "Because of the nature of the event, it's a one-shot qualifier for the NCAA championships. For somebody who is as good as Jevon you don't know what's going to happen. There is much at stake for qualifying for the NCAA championships so I'm always extremely nervous going in. I'm certainly optimistic, and the concern is to just take care of business towards getting into the main event."
Competition begins Friday with the 1-meter competition and finals beginning approximately at 12:45 p.m. Three-meter competition starts Saturday at 3:45 p.m.
Players Mentioned
