March 13, 2010

ATLANTA – South Carolina junior diver Taryn Zack advanced to the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships for the third consecutive year on Saturday with her third-place finish in the 3-meter event in the NCAA Zone B Diving Regionals at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.

Zack, a native of Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada, finished third in the 3-meter final with a score of 669.30 to earn one of eight priority spots for the 2010 NCAA Championships, which begin next Thursday, March 18, in West Lafayette, Ind. Despite missing the same dive in preliminaries that dropped her to fourth place at the SEC Championships, Zack was the fourth qualifier in preliminaries with a score of 321.60. She then nailed all six of her dives in the final round to move up to third and qualify for the championship.

Junior Allison Barr also advanced to the finals in the 3-meter event, finishing 14th with a score of 571.00. She was the 17th qualifier with a 273.20, then posted solid scores on all six dives in the finals to move up to 14th, her best finish at a Zone event. She will have one more shot to reach the NCAA Championships as she will compete in the platform event on Sunday.

None of the three men’s entrants for the Gamecocks advanced to the final in the 1-meter competition. Sarah Deuell finished 29th in prelims for the Carolina women.

Barr’s competition in the women’s platform event gets underway at 11 a.m. Sunday. Live results are available through DiveMeets.com.