Feb. 18, 2009

AUBURN, Ala. – South Carolina sophomore Taryn Zack advanced to Wednesday night’s finals in the three-meter diving competition with her fourth-place performance in the afternoon’s preliminaries at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at the James E. Martin Aquatic Center.

“Taryn did a great job,” diving coach Todd Sherritt said. “It wasn’t her best performance, but it definitely wasn’t her worst performance either. She missed one full-out, and that was the difference in finishing fourth and first. But the main thing is that she made the finals, so we’ll see what happens tonight.”

Zack posted a score of 320.80, a solid mark but short of her top performances this season. The top spot went to Florida’s Kara Salamone, who turned in a 335.85 to lead a pack of 26 competitiors in the afternoon prelims.

Gamecock sophomore Allison Barr finished just a hair outside the top eight with her 10th-place showing of 287.75. And freshman Helen Alvey started strong – she received the one of the highest single-dive scores of any competitor on her second dive – but faltered down the stretch and settled for a 20th place finish with a 248.80. Junior Morgan Ricke was 24th with a 222.35.

“Allison competed great today,” Sherritt said. “She maintained a great attitude the whole time, even after missing one of her dives. I was very impressed with her. Helen did a nice job in her first SEC competition. We’ve got room to improve, but it was a good effort.”

On the men’s side, freshman Ryan Kuser just missed out on the points with a 17th-place score of 254.00 in the one-meter preliminaries. Tennessee’s Michael Wright took the top spot in that competition with a 385.40.

The first night of finals gets underway at 6 p.m. Central time with the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay, along with Zack’s first shot at an SEC Championship in the women’s three-meter diving finals. Live results are available through AuburnTigers.com.