San Diego State University divers are set to compete at the NCAA Zone E Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, from March 9 to 11. The event will be held at the Wall Aquatic Center and offers a chance for athletes to secure automatic qualification for the upcoming NCAA Championships.
Representing SDSU are Isabella Gomez, Belen Cano, and Alina Skrocki, who will participate in all three events: the 1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard, and platform. Sophia Hineline (platform) and Meja Palmer (1-meter) will each compete in one event.
The championships begin Monday with the 1-meter springboard, followed by the 3-meter on Tuesday and platform on Wednesday. Preliminaries start at 11:30 a.m. PT daily. The top 18 divers from each preliminary round advance to finals.
To qualify automatically for the NCAA Championships in Atlanta later this month, divers must finish among the top six in the 1-meter final or top seven in either the 3-meter or platform finals. Divers who qualify automatically in one event and place among the top twelve in another also earn an NCAA berth for that event.
Gomez, Cano, and Skrocki earned all-conference honors last month at the Mountain West Championships across all three diving events. Their performances contributed to SDSU’s fifth straight league title. The trio also won gold in team diving during its inaugural appearance as a conference meet event.
Gomez achieved individual success with a gold medal on platform and bronze medals on both springboards. Her score of 306.30 on platform is second-highest in school history; her marks of 311.45 (1-meter) and 327.95 (3-meter) rank seventh.
Cano placed fourth in all three events at conference with scores that entered SDSU’s record books: fourth on platform (292.75), eighth on 1-meter (308.45), and ninth on 3-meter (324.95).
Skrocki posted a score of 291.05 from platform preliminaries at November’s Lumberjack Invitational—a mark that ranks fifth-best for SDSU—and won gold there as well. At Mountain West Championships, she finished sixth on platform and seventh on both springboards.
Hineline won the consolation finals of conference platform competition with a season-best score of 252 points.
Palmer set her season high of 280.13 points on the 1-meter board during SDSU’s dual-meet victory over San Diego earlier this year.
Northern Arizona hosts this year’s Zone E meet, which features teams from across the region including Air Force, Arizona schools, California programs such as Stanford and UCLA, Hawaii, Utah schools, Colorado State, Denver University, Fresno State, Grand Canyon University, Idaho institutions, Nevada schools, New Mexico programs, Pepperdine University, UC Davis, UNLV , USC , Wyoming , Brigham Young , Northern Colorado , California Baptist , among others.
