At this weekend's Zone A Diving Championships, junior Kent DeMond was the pearl of the pool, qualifying for the NCAA Championships — to be held later this month in Atlanta, Ga. — with his dives in both the three-meter and platform events.
Unfortunately for teammate Stuart Malcolm, DeMond's excellence proved excessive, costing the sophomore a place of his own in Atlanta.
The Zone A Championships — hosted this year by the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. — are the Northeast regional finals for the NCAAs. To advance to the national competition, a diver must win the one-meter event, win the platform event or be one of the top two finishers in the three-meter dive.
Going into the platform event yesterday, the last day of the competition, DeMond had already secured a berth in the NCAAs with his second-place finish in the three-meter contest two days before.
Malcolm, the only other male among eight Tigers in Annapolis, needed a win in the final event to move on to the national championships.
Malcolm performed admirably, posting a score of 640.50 over his 11 dives. The mark was nearly 70 points better than that of the third-place finisher, but it was not enough to surpass DeMond, who continued his stellar weekend performance, earning first place in the platform competition with 683.95 total points.
DeMond had claimed the right to two of the four berths in the NCAAs, but he couldn't keep them both nor could he pass the second along to his teammate. In the event of a double-qualifier like DeMond, qualifying rules give the fourth berth to the diver with the highest score in the three-meter event who did not win another event.
That fourth ticket to Atlanta went to Navy's Kevin Teague, the fourth place finisher in the three-meter dive, instead of Malcolm.
The Tigers' success in Annapolis began early, when DeMond nearly came away with an individual championship in the men's three-meter dive, only to have Pittsburgh's Jeremy Stultz emerge out of nowhere in the final round to steal the title.
DeMond's trials score of 312.50 was good for third place going into the finals, and the score of 339.70 that he totaled on his final six dives leapfrogged him past the only two divers he trailed. But Stultz, who sat 43 points out of the lead and in seventh place after the trials, posted a phenomenal 368.15 in the finals to outscore DeMond overall, 676.60 to 652.20.
Malcolm placed 16th overall in the event with a combined score of 525.10.
Solid showing for women
Despite the impossibility of Kent filling two spots, there were still almost two DeMonds on their way to the national championships. Kent's sister, junior Michelle DeMond, was a part of yet another Tiger one-two finish yesterday, albeit a far less controversial one.
In the women's platform dive, Michelle DeMond finished second to her teammate, freshman Peggy Kearns, completing a Princeton sweep of the top two spots in the men's and women's platform events. Kearns, who outscored DeMond 521.35 to 429.75 over 10 dives for the win, will advance to the NCAA women's championships in Athens, Ga., this coming weekend.
With the team's incredibly successful Sunday, Princeton became one of just two schools in the competition, along with Pittsburgh, to have a diver qualify for nationals in both the men's and women's draw.
The trials of the women's three-meter event on Saturday showcased four of the top Tiger divers, with sophomore Charlotte Jones leading the way with a score of 250.40 over her first six dives.
Joining Jones in the finals was a pair of teammates, DeMond and freshman Shelby Rudd. Kearns also earned the right to compete in the event, but failed to advance to the second round.
In the three-meter finals, Jones improved on her seventh-place showing in the trials with a mark of 263.55. Her combined score of 513.95 was good for fourth place, three spots ahead of DeMond, who moved up from ninth place with a solid final-round score of 252.60. Rudd finished the competition in 18th place after a disappointing score of 204.45 in the finals.
On the whole, the weekend cannot be chalked up as anything but a success for the Tigers, punctuated by the last day of competition, when they turned the Naval Academy's Lejeune Hall into a practice pool, competing only against themselves.
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