March 6, 2018
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Penn State junior Hector Garcia Boissier (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) added the 1-meter springboard to his NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships docket by winning the event at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships Tuesday afternoon in Rutgers Aquatic Center.
Garcia posted a 12-dive score of 771.85 points, scoring 395.95 points in the preliminaries and 375.90 in the finals to claim gold for a second consecutive day, as Monday he won the 3-meter with a 12-dive score of 844.50 points. By virtue of placing in the top five of the 3-meter and top six of the 1-meter, Garcia is received Zone A automatic qualification berths in both events.
"Hector has continued to set the mark for our entire region walking away with another win," said diving coach Dennis Ceppa. "He lead the contest from his very first dive and never looked back."
Led by Garcia, the Penn State men also had three finalists for a second-straight day. Senior Connor Scanlon (Laurel, Md.) placed 13th with a score of 596.05, while junior Jack Crow (Bethesda, Md.) was 18th with 533.45 points.
"Once again Connor put in an excellent performance as well, finishing within reach of an NCAA bid but falling just short," said Ceppa. "I'm extremely happy with how well composed Connor remained throughout the entire competition this year. As our third finals qualifier, Jack had a great showing today and will most certainly come away from this competition more hungry than ever."
Freshman Bryce Hoch (Hatfield, Pa.) also competed and totaled 250.90 points in the preliminaries.
Sophomore Christina Crowell (Bedford Hills, N.Y.) led the Penn State women in the 3-meter, posting a score of 222.50. Freshmen Kamryn Umbel (Potomac, Md.) and Emma Hellmann (Cincinnati, Ohio) followed with 193.85 and 174.85 points, respectively.
"The women looked much more comfortable on the boards today," said Ceppa. "We still have some work to do on all the new dives they've learned this year and I have no doubt this experience has been a great one for them."
On Monday, following Garcia's winning effort in the men's 3-meter, Scanlon placed ninth with 668.35 points and Crow was 14th with 608.65 points. Hoch also competed and scored 195.00 points on six dives in the preliminaries. In the women's 1-meter preliminaries. Umbel led the group with 202.30 points and was followed by Crowell with 199.25 points and Hellmann with 168.40 points.
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 six men's divers on the 1-meter, five on the 3-meter and five in platform diving to the national championship, while the women will advance six divers from the 1-meter event, six from the 3-meter and five from the platform competitions to the NCAA meet.
Competition continues Wednesday with platform diving starting at 11 a.m. Garcia, Crown and Hoch will be competing for Penn State.