Zone C Titles For Indiana’s Loukas On Day One

Indiana: Four Hoosier Divers Earn Spots at NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
Four Indiana University divers, led by senior Christina Loukas, punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships on day one of the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships being held in Minneapolis, Minn.

The competition continues Saturday with the women’s one-meter and the men’s three-meter.

Loukas earned her spot by winning the three-meter springboard competition, finishing with a 12-dive score of 736.65 that was more than 100 points better than second-place finisher Casey Matthews of Purdue. Brittney Feldman finished third with a total of 614.85, followed by Gabby Agostino in fourth (607.20). Both of those finishes were good enough to earn one of the 10 Zone C slots for women. Amy Korthauer was eighth with 558.15 points.

The Hoosier women dominated the three-meter springboard preliminaries, taking four of the top seven spots. Loukas was on top after six dives with 365.15 points, followed by Feldman in second (308.40) and Agostino in third (304.20). Korthauer was seventh after the prelims with a score of 289.10. Christina Kouklakis finished 25th in the prelims with 173.60 points.

In the men’s one-meter competition, Landon Marzullo was the top IU finisher, taking third with 688.45 points and earning a spot in his second-consecutive NCAA meet. Marzullo moved up in the ranks after finishing fifth in the prelims. Linus Altman-Kurosaki placed eighth overall with 633.15 points. Robert Dohring was 22nd in the preliminary round with 261.50 points and Jonathan Dohring was 24th with 250.85 points. Will Bohonyi rounded out the Indiana contingent with a score of 201.75 in the opening round.

Ohio: Hamilton Places 12th in 3-Meter Diving at Zone C Championships
Ohio University junior Lindsay Hamilton finished 12th on the 3-meter diving board Friday afternoon at the Zone C Championships hosted by the University of Minnesota. Hamilton (White City, Sask.), the school record holder on both springboards (1- and 3-meter), also posted a top-12 finish on the 3-meter board in her freshman year at the Zone Championships.

Hamilton rested in 17th (of 37) after Friday’s prelims with a score of 249.45, just making the finals, as the top-18 preliminary scores advanced. In the finals later Friday afternoon, the junior posted a score of 286.65 for a combined total of 536.10, which vaulted her up to 12th, as the prelim scores carried over to the finals.

“Lindsay had a great lift in the finals, which moved her up to 12th place,” Ohio diving coach Russ Dekker said. “She will probably be shy of qualifying (for the NCAA Championships) with that position, but I was very pleased with her finals performance. She missed a bit in her (preliminary) lift which hurt and probably kept her from competing for one of the top spots.”

Akron’s Katie Carter was the only Mid-American Conference diver to finish ahead of Hamilton, as she placed 10th with a cumulative score of 551.75. The other two competing MAC divers were eliminated after the preliminary round.

“This zone is a tough contest with two Olympians and a bunch of Big Ten divers who compete at a high level,” Dekker said. “So for Lindsay to be right there in the mix, I think that’s good for her confidence and hopefully we’ll see more out of her tomorrow on 1-meter.”

Hamilton will compete in Zone C 1-meter diving Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. ET at the University of Minnesota’s University Aquatic Center, where she will compete for a spot in the NCAA Championships, which are held March 19-21 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

The Zone C Diving Championships consist of divers qualifying from schools located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Ten divers from the Zone C Championships will join the top finishers from the other four zones at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The ten spots are awarded to the top-four finishers on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards and the top-two in platform diving, but if a diver has already qualified on one board, the spot is given to the next-highest finisher.