March 7, 2016

ANNAPOLIS, Md. ââ'¬" The Penn State men's and women's divers had a strong first day at the NCAA Zone A Regional Monday afternoon at the Naval Academy's Lejeune Hall., as all five reached the finals and Hector Garcia Boissier and Jack Crow finished 1-2 in the 3-meter to earn NCAA Championship bids.

Garcia totaled a 12-dive score of 732.10 to win the Zone, while Crow totaled 717.75. Garcia led after the preliminaries with a six-dive score of 357.75, while Crow was fifth at 347.20.

The pair are the first to qualify for the NCAA Championships for Penn State since Mike Alderman in 2007 and the first duo in the 3-meter since Chris Alderman and Steve Bohner in 2001.

Teammates Connor Scanlon and Logan Knauss also reached the finals. Scanlon placed 10th with a total score of 643.00 and Knauss was 18th at 574.50.

The performances gave the Nittany Lions 56 team points to edge Virginia Tech, which totaled 54 points, for the lead on the first day.

Mackenzie Cornell represented the Nittany Lion women in the 1-meter, placing 12th with a total score of 478.85.

Competition continues Tuesday at noon with the men's 1-meter and women's 3-meter events. Platform diving for both the men and the women will be held on Wednesday starting at 11 a.m.

NCAA schools are divided into five zones for diving based upon geographical location. Zone A consists of schools in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. A total of 112 divers have qualified for the Zone A Championship on at least one board.

The format for the two springboard events consists of six dives for all entered divers with the top-18 finishers from the preliminary round advancing to the finals where each will again perform six dives. Scores from the preliminary round are carried over into the finals. The platform event features all entered divers taking 12 dives.

Zone A will send four men's divers on the one meter, five on the three meter and four in platform diving to the national championship, while the women will advance five divers from the one-meter event and six from both the three meter and platform competitions to the NCAA meet.

Georgia Tech will play host to both NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship meets. The women will compete in the school's McAuley Aquatic Center March 16-19, with the men's meet slated for March 23-26.