Ball State University Athletics
Women?s Dive To Participate In NCAA Zones
March 11, 2015 | Women's Swimming and Diving
MUNCIE, Ind. – Junior Madie Zirzow and sophomore Brittany Penn have qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving C Championships taking place in Columbus, Ohio this weekend. Of the 54 divers competing at the event, 13 are from the Mid-American Conference.
Zirzow qualified for the Zone meet early on in the season after tallying a score of 269.85 in home opening action with Akron on Nov. 1. Zirzow then posted another qualifying score of 289.05 in the three-meter at the MAC Championships. That score ranks fifth in the Ball State record books in the three-meter diving competition (six dives). This is the Fort Wayne, Ind. native's second time participating in NCAA Diving Zones, after earning a qualifying score of 276.75 in one-meter competition her freshman year.
Penn earned her berth with a Zone qualifying score of 266.40 on the one-meter in Ball State's final home meet of the season against Miami. The score placed Penn in ninth in the Ball State one-meter diving (six dives) record book. Penn also recorded a season best of 260.40 on the three-meter board in the Miami meet.
With both Zirzow and Penn's participation, it is the first time since the 2011-12 season that Ball State has had two women qualify for NCAA Zones in the same year.
In one-meter competition, Zirzow and Penn will compete with dive difficulties of 14.80 and 13.80, respectively. Zirzow will contend at a 15.90 difficulty and Penn at a 14.30 difficulty in three-meter competition.
DiveMeets.com will be running live results throughout the meet, with prelim action beginning at 1 p.m. and finals to follow directly after. Competition begins Thursday with the three-meter diving event, followed by one-meter diving taking place Friday afternoon.
There will be eight berths to the NCAA Championships available in the one-meter, along with nine entries in the three-meter from Zone C this year. In order to advance from prelims to finals, divers must finish in the top-18.
Five Zone meets will take place this weekend across the country. Hosting schools include University of Buffalo, University of Georgia, Ohio State University, University of Iowa, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women's swimming and diving action, follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateWSwim on Twitter.
