Hokie ClubCHRISTIANSBURG, Va. -- Junior Kyle Butts and freshman Ashley Buchter both earned spots at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Tuesday afternoon, as the Virginia Tech diving teams finished up competition on the springboards at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
After taking fourth place in the 1M preliminaries, Butts tallied 346.75 points in the finals to move up to second place in the event with 677.20 total points, qualifying for his second straight NCAA Championships and leading a quartet of H2Okies that finished in the top six.
Freshman TJ Shinholser tallied 670.65 points to take home third place, putting himself in position to earn the fifth and final men’s berth to the NCAA Championships should the winner of tomorrow’s platform event be one of the four competitors who have already qualified.
Senior Ryan Hawkins (648.80) and sophomore Logan Stevents (617.05) took home fourth and sixth place, respectively, to cap off Tech’s dominance in the event.
Buchter also used a sizable comeback to punch her ticket to the NCAA Championships, charging back from eighth place after the prelims to finish fourth in the women’s 3M. The freshman racked up 285.80 points in the finals to finish with 568.95 and edge fifth place by just 0.45 points.
Junior Kaylea Arnett, who qualified with a win in yesterday’s 1M event, took runner-up honors in today’s 3M with a total score of 642.95. Junior Kelli Stockton used a finals score of 300.45, the third-highest total across the final six dives, to climb back into seventh place for the H2Okies.
“This was an excellent day for the Virginia Tech diving squads,” Head Diving Coach Ron Piemonte said. “Kyle [Butts] was outstanding on the 1M today and hats off to Ashley Buchter, who fought back after the prelims to pull out a great list in the finals. TJ [Shinholser] also did a great job of getting third place in the 1M to put himself in a position to earn qualification, depending on the platform tomorrow.”
Zone A, which covers the east coast from Virginia to Maine, has been allocated 11 total spots (6 women, 5 men) for the 2014 NCAA Championships. Competitions in four other zones (Greensboro, N.C., Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Minn. and Colorado Springs, Colo.) will also send qualifiers to the NCAA Championships.
Both the men and women will compete on the platform tomorrow afternoon, as prelims kick off at noon again, followed by finals after a 15-minute break.
Admission is free for the duration of the Zone A Championships. Today’s results and live results for the entire week can be found at the attached links.