March 18, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – SEC Champion and two-time All-American Taryn Zack will begin her quest for a national championship Thursday as the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships commence at Texas A&M University. Zack will compete in the one-meter and three-meter diving events this weekend, looking to add to her pair of All-America certificates garnered at last year’s NCAA meet.

The sophomore from Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada, is South Carolina’s only entrant in this year’s women’s championships. She earned her way in with a second-place finish on the one-meter board at the NCAA Zone B Diving Regional in Knoxville, Tenn., last weekend. Her score of 569.85 (12 dives) was good enough to earn her the fifth priority spot for advancement to this week’s championships; she was one of 10 women’s divers to earn berths last weekend at Tennessee.

Last year as a freshman, Zack finished eighth in the country in the three-meter event, scoring a 319.35 to earn her first All-America certificate. She also took home an Honorable Mention All-America honor with her 11th-place finish on the one-meter board.

Zack is one of six divers from the Southeastern Conference entered in the NCAA Championships. She joins Kara Salmone and Monica Dodson from Florida, SEC three-meter champion Carrie Dragland of Alabama, Hannah Moore of Georgia and Gabrielle Trudeau of Tennessee.

The competition gets underway at 1:30 p.m. Central time Thursday with one-meter preliminaries. Should Zack earn a spot in the top eight and advance to the evening’s finals, that session would begin at 7 p.m. Central time. Live results can be obtained through aggieathletics.com.