Feb. 28, 2007

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina diving team will travel to the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium this weekend to compete in the NCAA Zone B Diving Championship.

There are four additional zone diving competitions this weekend, and the top 35 men and 41 women from all five events will advance to the NCAA Championships being held in Minneapolis, Minn., later in March. Eight of those men and 11 of those women will come from Zone B. Divers from South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Clemson, North Florida, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Miami, Duke, Florida International and Tennessee will make up the more than 90 divers participating in this weekend’s event.

Senior Lyndsey Havens and freshmen Sarah Mory and Morgan Ricke will represent the Gamecocks on the women’s side. This will be Haven’s final attempt to go to the NCAA finals. She is currently ranked second in the SEC on the one-meter board. Sophomores David Ovelson and Corry Christian will represent the Gamecocks on the men’s side. Ovelson will be attempting to make his second NCAA appearance. He finished 24th on the three-meter and 26th on the one-meter in 2006.

“Our goal for the weekend is to get everyone into NCAAs. I think if everyone dives the way that they can, then that is going to happen. They’ve trained and they are ready. They just have to go out there and do it during the contest,” Diving Coach Todd Sherritt said. “We’ve had to overcome some injuries. We’ve had shoulder, back, knee and ankle injuries, but I think that we are healthy enough to be able to do the job.”

The Gamecocks will compete on the one- and three-meter springboards. The springboard events will be held on Friday and Saturday, starting at noon both days. The other zone events are taking place at Rutgers, Michigan, Texas and Oklahoma City Community College.