Thursday, March 8
Columbus, Ohio
1 PM
Ball State University
at
NCAA Diving Zones
Bertram and Smallwood Head to NCAA Diving Zones for Second Straight Year
March 07, 2018 | Women's Swimming and Diving
MUNCIE, Ind. – The Ball State women's diving team is once again proud to have two divers representing them at the 2018 NCAA Diving Zones. Sophomores Rachel Bertram (Buffalo, MN/Buffalo) and Rachel Smallwood (Indianapolis, Ind./ Center Grove) will both compete in the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships for their second straight year. This year's Diving Championships will be March 8 -10th in Columbus, Ohio.
"We are very excited for Zones as it has been a focus meet for us all season," diving coach Nick Gayes said. "It is a great opportunity to compete against some of the best divers in the nation and we believe we have done the work to be right in the mix to contend for a berth to the NCAA Championships."
Bertram is third in school history in the 1-meter with a score of 288.90 set in November. She is also fifth in the 3-meter with a score of 294.40, which earned her bronze medal at the 2017 MAC Championships. At this year's conference meet, Bertram earned a pair of seventh place finishes, scoring 275.5 in the 1-meter finals, and 280.50 in the 3-meter finals. She earned 19 individual victories during the regular season.
Smallwood, who ranks sixth in school history in the 1-meter (275.03), earned the eight place spot in 1-meter finals at MAC with a score of 265.30, and added a 12th place finish on 3-meter with a career-best 277.75. Smallwood recorded four individual victories during the regular season.
"We are very proud of our divers for their performances throughout the season to qualify them to NCAA Zones," head coach Kristy Patterson said. "We are especially proud of how they competed at the MAC Championship. Their finishes on both boards are a showcase of their hard work and diligence. Our diving coach, Nick Gayes, did a great job preparing and training them for this part of the season. Their MAC performances were some of the best we have seen in the history of our diving program. We are excited for this elevation in standards for our swimming and diving program."
The duo's finals appearance on 1-meter marked the first time two Ball State divers made the top 8 in the same event since at least 2002.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Ball State has had a pair of divers representing them at the Zone meet. The two competed last year while Madie Zirzow and Brittany Penn competed in 2015, and Zirzow and Quinn Bixler in 2016.
Betram and Smallwood will compete in a deep field of more than 50 divers that includes teams from the BigTen, SEC, ACC, and MAC, among others.
The divers will compete on 1-meter on Thursday, March 8, and 3-meter on Friday, March 9. The platform event will be held on March 10th, however the Ball State divers will not be competing in that event. Live results can be found at www.divemeets.com.
For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State women's swimming and diving team, please follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateWSwim.
"We are very excited for Zones as it has been a focus meet for us all season," diving coach Nick Gayes said. "It is a great opportunity to compete against some of the best divers in the nation and we believe we have done the work to be right in the mix to contend for a berth to the NCAA Championships."
Bertram is third in school history in the 1-meter with a score of 288.90 set in November. She is also fifth in the 3-meter with a score of 294.40, which earned her bronze medal at the 2017 MAC Championships. At this year's conference meet, Bertram earned a pair of seventh place finishes, scoring 275.5 in the 1-meter finals, and 280.50 in the 3-meter finals. She earned 19 individual victories during the regular season.
Smallwood, who ranks sixth in school history in the 1-meter (275.03), earned the eight place spot in 1-meter finals at MAC with a score of 265.30, and added a 12th place finish on 3-meter with a career-best 277.75. Smallwood recorded four individual victories during the regular season.
"We are very proud of our divers for their performances throughout the season to qualify them to NCAA Zones," head coach Kristy Patterson said. "We are especially proud of how they competed at the MAC Championship. Their finishes on both boards are a showcase of their hard work and diligence. Our diving coach, Nick Gayes, did a great job preparing and training them for this part of the season. Their MAC performances were some of the best we have seen in the history of our diving program. We are excited for this elevation in standards for our swimming and diving program."
The duo's finals appearance on 1-meter marked the first time two Ball State divers made the top 8 in the same event since at least 2002.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Ball State has had a pair of divers representing them at the Zone meet. The two competed last year while Madie Zirzow and Brittany Penn competed in 2015, and Zirzow and Quinn Bixler in 2016.
Betram and Smallwood will compete in a deep field of more than 50 divers that includes teams from the BigTen, SEC, ACC, and MAC, among others.
The divers will compete on 1-meter on Thursday, March 8, and 3-meter on Friday, March 9. The platform event will be held on March 10th, however the Ball State divers will not be competing in that event. Live results can be found at www.divemeets.com.
For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State women's swimming and diving team, please follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateWSwim.
Players Mentioned
Diving
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