This past Saturday, a single Emory diver, junior Kellen Hope, competed at the NCAA Division III Region 2 Zone Diving Championships at Trinity University (Texas).
Hope finished fourth in the one-meter dive, just seven-tenths of a point away from qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships.
“Both dives are taken into account, so even though I got fourth, I still didn’t make it,” Hope said. “But, even though my season is over, I’m totally fine with it. I’m happy about the people who are moving on because they deserve it and worked really hard.”
Hope scored 401.30, while Maia Presti of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.) placed third and became the final national qualifier with her 402.00-point score.
Sarah Hayhurst of Centre College (Ky.) won the event with a score of 464.60.
Hope also competed in the three-meter dive on Friday, placing sixth with 362.20 points. Freshman Danielle Freund of Trinity won the event with 452.80 points.
“Next season, we will see how it goes and I’ll try my best,” Hope added. “This was one of my better meets and I’m happy with how it turned out.”
The rest of the swimming team has since been preparing for next month’s NCAA Division III Championships in Shenandoah (Texas).
The women’s team, coming off their sixth-straight national championship win, received a full slate of 18 swimmers selected for the meet. Emory was one of just two women’s teams, along with Kenyon College (Ohio), to qualify the maximum number of swimmers for nationals.
The women selected are as follows: seniors Megan Beach, Dana Holt, Nancy Larson, McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg, Michelle York and Nina Zook; juniors Elizabeth Aronoff, Carolyn Bonfield and Ellie Thompson; sophomores Marissa Bergh, Annelise Kowalsky, Claire Liu and Marcela Sanchez-Aizcorbe; and freshmen Megan Campbell, Cindy Cheng, Ming Ong, Rebecca Upton and Julia Wawer.
The women will be competing against 243 individuals from 54 different schools.
Fourteen men will head to Texas for the meet, the second-most out of any team selected to attend after Kenyon’s 18 competitors.
The men competitors are as follows: seniors Hayden Baker and Eric Ruggieri, juniors Jared Scheuer, Andrew Wilson and Eagan Zettlemoyer, sophomores Christian Baker, Hayes Burdette-Sapp and Mitchell Cooper, and freshmen Henry Copses, Wes Duke, Alex Hardwick, Chandler Lichtefeld, Oliver Smith and Cooper Tollen.
These Eagles will compete within a 236-person field, consisting of 57 different teams.
All 32 athletes are set to start competition in Texas March 18, continuing through March 21.21.
— By Elana Cates, Assistant Sports Editor
Kellen Hope Competes at Diving Championships
Junior Kellen Hope dives off the board. Hope was the single Eagle to compete in the NCAA Division III Region Two Dive Championships. She missed an Nationals qualifying spot by seven-tenths of a point. | Courtesy of Emory Athletics
