COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Alex Clay became the first Stanford diver to earn a spot in the NCAA Championships with a second-place finish in 1-meter diving at the NCAA Zone E Diving Meet on Thursday. USC’s Haley Ishimatsu won the first event of the three-day meet.
Clay finished with 577.95 points, just 2.25 behind Ishimatsu.
Stephanie Phipps (557.55) was fifth and Kassidy Cook (550.95) earned sixth as Stanford took half of the top six spots. Lilly Hinrichs also advanced out of the prelims and came in ninth (545.15).
"It was a good but very tough day; the ladies dived well," said diving coach Dr. Rick Schavone. "Three in the top six in the entire zones is amazing but only the top three qualify so I'm sad for Stephanie and Kassidy, especially Kassidy who made a very amazing effort to come back from an injury with only three weeks of training."
While Clay automatically qualifies for the NCAA meet, the other Cardinal are not guaranteed based on the qualifying order of priority (below).
"The most praise should go to Alex, who is a walk-on and who no one would have picked to make NCAAs," Schavone expressed. "She just had an amazing three weeks. She had a great conference meet, a good week of practice and then a great day today. Again, the only word I can think of is amazing."
Stanford’s divers have two more opportunities to gain an NCAA bid in the other springboard competition, the 3-meter, tomorrow and platform diving on Saturday. The top three on the 3-meter are guaranteed a qualifying spot, while the platform has two assured positions.
Zone E has eight spots at the NCAA meet. Once a diver has qualified, her spot in the order of qualifying is skipped over once the Zone’s eight divers have been selected.
NCAA Championships order of priority
1. Winner of Platform
2. Winner of Three-meter
3. Winner of One-meter - Haley Ishimatsu, USC
4. Second-place Three-meter
5. Second-place One-meter - Alex Clay, Stanford
6. Third-place Three-meter
7. Third-place One-meter - Lauren Hall, Hawaii
8. Second-place Platform
9. Fourth-place Three-meter
10. Fourth-place One-meter - Hailey Casper, Arizona State
11. Fifth-place Three-meter
12. Third-place Platform
13. Fifth-place One-meter - Stephanie Phipps, Stanford
14. Sixth-place Three-meter
15. Sixth-place One-meter - Kassidy Cook, Stanford
16. Fourth-place Platform
17. Seventh-place Three-meter
18. Seventh-place One-meter - Aimee Harrison, Hawaii
19. Eighth-place Three-meter
20. Fifth-place Platform
21. Eighth-place One-meter - Hannah Prigge, Fresno State
22. Ninth-place Three-meter
23. Ninth-place One-meter - Lillian Hinrichs, Stanford
24. Sixth-place Platform
25. 10th-place Three-meter
26. 10th-place One-meter - Ciera Cortney, Boise State
27. 11th-place Three-meter
28. Seventh-place Platform
29. 11th-place One-meter - En-tien Huang, Nevada
30. 12th-place Three-meter
31. 12th-place One-meter - Michal Bower, Arizona
Friday, March 14
Women's 3m Prelims: 11 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Women's 3m Finals: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Men's 1m Prelims: 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Men's 1m Finals: 6:45 p.m. - 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, March 15
Women's Platform Prelims: 11 a.m. - 12:35 p.m.
Women's Platform Finals: 12:50 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Men's Platform Prelims: 2:50 p.m. - 4:05 p.m.
Men's Platform Finals: 4:20 p.m. - 4:55 p.m.