Zeng Captures Platform Win to End Diving Invite

Wednesday, January 3

Knoxville, TN

All Day

University of Tennessee

Tennessee Diving Invitational

January 05, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Results

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In a back-and-forth battle, redshirt junior Colin Zeng edged LSU's Juan Hernandez to win the platform competition Friday to end the Tennessee Diving Invitational.

Zeng posted three dives for 8s and 9s to finish with a six-dive total score of 432.30. Hernandez was just behind in 430.40.

Friday wrapped up a two-victory week for Zeng, who also won the 1-meter springboard (391.15) and finished second on 3-meter (403.85). Hernandez, last year's diver of the meet at the SEC championships, won the 3-meter and finished second in the other events.

In the men's platform, freshman Will Hallam was 13th (281.40) and freshman Keegan Richardson took 15th (275.10).

Freshman Ana Celaya Hernandez led the way for Tennessee on platform, scoring 231.45 to finish fifth. Freida Lim of Georgia won with a score of 267.05.

Freshman Lily Schneider was 19th (188.05), but junior Rachel Rubadue retired after her second dive.

Tennessee Diving Coach Dave Parrington:
"I was pleased with Colin's performance. He was a little beaten up physically, so we had a conservative warmup plan. He did his lead-up dives and all his 10-meter dives without doing them in warmups. He was a little rusty, like he's been most of the weekend, but he had a good competition with Juan like he has all weekend. It was good for him to pull out the win in two of three events. Will hasn't done any dives off platform since Dec. 6 because of injuries, but he showed a lot of grit and potential. Keegan was a little inconsistent, so we need to see how to get him to take what he does in practice into competition.

"On the women's side, it was really disappointing ankle roll for Rachel on her second dive. If it was a championship meet, she may have competed but we decided to pull her out. In practice, she looked really good. I was really pleased with Ana. Each time she gets up there, she gets more confident. She missed her last dive, but it was an aggressive mistake. I was pleased with Lily, who is progressing as well. I felt good about all the stuff we got done this weekend and set ourselves up well for what's to come."