Four Divers to Compete at Zone C Championships

Diving at NCAA Zone C Championships
Date	Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 13
Venue	Lexington, Ky. \| Lancaster Aquatic Center
Preview Info	EMU Notes
Live Stats	DiveMeets.com
Twitter	@EMUSwimDive \| @EMUAthletics

LEXINGTON, Ky. (EMUEagles.com) -- The Eastern Michigan University diving squad heads to the Bluegrass State for the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships beginning Thursday, March 12. The women's 1-meter competition will begin at 1 p.m. on Thursday, while the 3-meter competition will take place on Friday, March 13, at the conclusion of the men's 1-meter event.
   The live updates, as well as final results from the meet will be available on DiveMeets.com. Updates will also be posted from the team's twitter account, @EMUSwimDive.

ZONE C MEET FAST FACTS: Eastern Michigan will have four divers at the Zone C Championships in Bethany Berger, Micaela Schempf, Sophia Tsafantakis, and Keira Veltigian.
   The 1-meter competition will take place Thursday, March 12, followed by the 3-meter competition on Friday, March 13 at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The top seven finishers in 1-meter will advance to the NCAA Championships, while the top six in 3-meter will move on.
   The Eagles will face competition from Mid-American Conference rivals University of Akron, Ball State University, Bowling Green State University, Ohio University, and University of Toledo. In addition, the Green and White will face competition from hosts University of Kentucky, as well as University of Louisville, University of Michigan, and Ohio State University, among others.

AT THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Eastern Michigan diving team heads to Kentucky after competing at the MAC Championships. Sophia Tsafantakis led the way for EMU, posting a team-best second-place finish in 3-meter diving with a score of 302.22, and fourth-place finish in 1-meter at 278.07. Micaela Schempf finished third in the 1-meter (278.07) and fourth in 3-meter (285.96), while Bethany Berger finished fifth in both events (263.01 and 279.36, respectively). In her first outing at the MAC Championships, Keira Veltigian finished 17th in the 1-meter diving preliminaries with a mark of 222.75, and finished 15th in the finals of the 3-meter competition with a score of 227.85.

LAST SEASON AT ZONE C: Three of the four Eagle divers competing at the Zone C Diving Championships this season also competed in 2019. Eastern's best finish came from then-junior Sophia Tsafantakis, who finished 12th in the 3-meter competition with a score of 227.55.

MAC COY: Eastern Michigan Head Diving Coach Buck Smith was named the 2020 MAC Diving Coach of the Year, Feb. 29. The honor is the fourth consecutive season Smith has won, as well as the 11th overall time in his career.

FOUR-PEAT: Eastern Michigan senior diver Sophia Tsafantakis will make her fourth appearance at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, having qualified for the event in every season she has been at EMU.

NCAA Zone C Schedule
Thursday – Women's 1-meter – 1:00 p.m. ET
Friday – Women's 3-meter – will begin at the conclusion of the men's 1-meter event
Top-18 in the opening round/prelims advance to the finals. Scores will carry over.

Zone C NCAAs Qualifying Breakdown for 2020
Women's Auto Qualifiers
1-meter: 7
3-meter: 6

Once a diver posts an auto-qualifying finish in an event, she only has to be among the top 12 to earn the NCAA Championships berth in the other events.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Bethany Berger

Micaela Schempf

Sophia Tsafantakis

Keira Veltigian

Eastern Michigan Athletics