NCAA Zone C Diving Championships take place at Councilman-Billingsley Center

Starting Thursday, IU’s diving team will compete in the 2012 NCAA Zone C Diving Championships in Bloomington with the potential for divers to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships later this month.

Throughout the span of the next three days, 113 divers will compete for 14 spots — seven spots per gender — for the NCAA Championships, with the top three finishers in the 1- and 3-meter and the top finisher in the platform dives advancing.

With 15 Hoosiers competing, the pressure is on for the team to qualify divers for the NCAA Championships.

“Only seven men and seven women will advance from this meet to the championship, so it will be tough,” IU Diving Coach Jeff Huber said. “Last year, the defending NCAA champion did not make it out of the zone meet. There will be some good divers at this meet that won’t advance.”

Also competing will be Big Ten Champions Bianca Alvarez, Shane Miszkiel and Cheyenne Cousineau from OSU. With divers from 25 Midwest schools competing, IU will have fierce competition.

“We are strong in all events and will therefore contest each event,” Huber said. “I think we learned a few things from Big Tens and will be better prepared for the zone meet.”

IU divers include Big Ten 3-meter champion sophomore Darian Schmidt, who set the school record twice at the Championships. Schmidt recorded scores of 445.90 and 459.30 at the Big Ten Championships in February.

“Darian has practiced very well and seems focused and dialed to what he wants to do to perform well at the NCAA Zone Championship,” Huber said. “It has been rewarding for me to watch his maturation as a diver and team leader ever since his high school state meet.”

Sophomore Laura Ryan and junior Amy Cozad will also be competing. They missed this past month’s Big Ten Championships because of the FINA Diving World Cup in London. The duo finished 10th in the 10-meter synchronized platform dive, just outside of qualifying the United States for the Olympics in the event. For this meet, both will be competing in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dives.

“We are, of course, excited to have both divers back and representing IU,” Huber said. “I know they are happy to be back and are excited for the meet.”

The qualifiers will compete at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships from March 15-17 in Auburn, Ala., while the men who qualify will compete in Federal Way, Wash., from March 22-24. Huber said the Hoosiers are ready to make a mark at the zone meet.

“I think the divers have a good mindset for the competition,” Huber said. “They are definitely ready to perform even better than they did at Big Tens.”