ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Senior Hector Garcia Boissier punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships with a second-place finish on the 1-meter springboard to lead Penn State's men's and women's divers on the first day of the NCAA Zone A Regional Championships Monday afternoon in Lejeune Hall.
Garcia Boissier earned a 12-dive score of 764.95 to place second to Columbia's Jonathan Suckow (779.75), earning his fourth-consecutive trip to NCAAs. Following Garcia was fellow senior Jack Crow, who placed 12th with a score of 588.70. Sophomore Bryce Hoch also reached the finals and finished 15th with a score of 570.20.
"Hector dove really well today and is right on track to really peak at NCAAs in a few weeks. He secured his spot today to the big show," said Diving coach Jeff DiNicola. "Jack has a great shot of being in the mix to make NCAAs. If he does secure a qualification spot tomorrow on three meter, his performance today was enough to also compete on the one meter at NCAAs".
On the women's side Christina Crowell completed the first day finishing one spot shy of advancing to the final round, recording a score of 251.85 for a 19th place finish.
"Christina was super solid with only a miss on one dive that kept her from finals," said Diving Coach Jeff DiNicola, "She is starting to be noticed by other coaches that continually tell me they see such great improvement from past years with her. I am ready to see what the one-meter can bring for her tomorrow."
The format for the 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 Tuesday at noon with the men's 3-meter and women's 1-meter events. Platform diving will be held Wednesday starting at 11 a.m. Follow along at https://gopsu.info/2tZJzJv
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.
