Three CMS Divers Looking to Punch Ticket to NCAAs This Weekend
CLAREMONT, Calif. – Three Claremont-Mudd-Scripps divers will look to punch their ticket to the NCAA National Championships this weekend. Kendall Hollimon (CMC), Maia Presti (SC), and Nia-Renee Cooper (SC) will be in action this weekend starting at 2:00 p.m. on Friday at the Palo Alto College Aquatics Center in San Antonio, Texas for the NCAA Region 2 Diving Prelims hosted by Trinity (TX) College.
Scouting CMS
As mentioned, CMS has three divers in the field this weekend. Kendall Hollimon will represent the Stags after sweeping both the one and three-meter events at the SCIAC Championship a week ago. The sophomore claimed the three meter competition with a score of 624.50 and later in the conference meet, won the one meter contest with a score of 554.80. Hollimon has extremely consistent throughout the year and is looking to make it to his second-straight NCAA Championships after making last season as a freshman.
In 2017, Hollimon finished 18th on the one-meter board with a score of 402.80 and earned a fourth-place finish in the three-meter competition with 522.25 points.
Like Hollimon, Maia Presti is looking to make a return trip to the NCAA National Championships. Last season she finished the one-meter competition with 406.70 points to earn 10th place. Last week, Presti won the SCIAC Championship for one-meter diving with a score of 505.85. She also earned a second All-SCIAC honor with a third-place finish in three-meter diving with a score of 423.05.
Joining Presti and Hollimon this weekend will be Nia-Renee Cooper who is looking for her first invitation to the NCAA National Championships this season. Cooper earned a pair of top-10 finishes last weekend with a sixth-place finish in the one-meter competition and a seventh-place finish in the three-meter event. She scored 399.35 in the one-meter and 380.55 in the three-meter to earn a spot in the NCAA Regional.
The trio of CMS athletes will be joined by nine other divers from the SCIAC. The women's field features 17 total divers with seven athletes coming from the SCIAC while the men's side has just 11 total divers and five coming from the SCIAC.
The Nuts and Bolts of Selections
Each regional meet is given a fixed number of National Qualifiers. This number will be determined by the number of divers eligible to compete in a given region. At the end of the qualification period, all divers eligible to compete in a regional qualifier will be determined by the criteria listed above. The number of eligible divers at each region will be divided by the number of eligible divers at all regions and then multiplied by 24 for the men and 29 for the women to determine the ratio for the number of assigned National Qualification spots. Standard rounding principals will be used to transform ratios into whole numbers. Regardless of ratios, no region will have less than two male qualifiers and two female qualifiers.
The qualifiers to the National Championships will be assigned by alternating between the highest finisher on day one and the highest finisher on day two, considering that divers already invited will be skipped. (Example with five qualifiers: 1-Winner from day one; 2-Highest finisher on day two, not already invited; 3-Highest finisher on day one, not already invited; 4-Highest finisher on day two, not already invited; 5-Highest finisher on day one, not already invited). This assures equal consideration is given to both boards.
How to Follow
You can follow along all weekend long with live streaming from the Trinity Tigers as well as on CMSathletics.org with event recaps after Friday and Saturday's competitions.
What's Next
After this weekend, qualified divers will hit the road in three weeks for the NCAA National Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. on Mar. 21-24. Any CMS divers that qualify this weekend will join 12 CMS swimmers that are already scheduled to make the trip to Indiana for the National Championships at the end of March. Check CMSathletics.org in the coming weeks for a full preview of the National Championship Meet.