March 11, 2011
By Wes Todd
Assistant Media Relations Director
| Taryn Zack – NCAA Zone Diving |
ATHENS, Ga. – South Carolina’s Taryn Zack put together her second strong performance in as many days as she earned a runner-up finish in the women’s 1-meter final, and sophomore Rylan Ridenour set a 12-dive school record on the 3-meter board at the NCAA Zone B Diving meet at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium on Friday.
“It’s been a roller-coaster week,” head diving coach Todd Sherritt said. “I’m happy with the way Rylan and Taryn competed this week. Extremely pleased with the progress Rylan has made. He’s certainly matured as an athlete this week, extremely consistent throughout the meet. He’ll be back next year for sure; a lot of these other guys are graduating and he’ll have a good shot to make it through to NCAAs.”
Already qualified for the NCAA Championships, Zack fought through the pain of a lingering shoulder injury and finished with a school-record 12-dive score of 598.95, breaking her own mark of 584.40 set at the 2009 Zone meet in Knoxville, Tenn. She finished 30 points behind Duke’s Abby Johnston, who earned her second win of the week after taking top honors on the 3-meter board Thursday. Zack took third place in the 3-meter final to secure her spot in next week’s NCAA Championships.
Ridenour earned an 11th-place finish in the men’s 3-meter event, advancing to the finals for the second day in a row. His score of 698.20 set a school record for a 12-dive total, and he finished one spot outside of a potential qualifying position for the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis.
Junior Courtney Forcucci advanced to the women’s 1-meter final as well, finishing 17th with a score of 512.45. She will compete in the platform competition on Saturday, needing a fourth-place finish or better to qualify for the NCAA Championships. And sophomore Chay Malvasio finished 28th in the preliminary round with a score of 230.05.
Forcucci will be the Gamecocks’ lone competitor in the platform preliminaries on Saturday, which get underway at 10:30 a.m. Live scoring is available via divemeets.com.
