The Gators men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are in Knoxville, Tennessee, this week to compete in the NCAA diving zones.
The Florida women divers competing are sophomore Brooke Madden and freshman Emma Whitner. The men send sophomore Alex Farrow and redshirt senior Dalton Goss to the diving boards.
On Day 1, Madden advanced to the 1-meter finals, where she finished in ninth place with a score of 549.95 points. She just missed advancing to the NCAA Championships next week, as the top seven advance from the final. Whitner, Farrow and Goss did not advance to the final rounds on Monday.
On Tuesday, both women made it to the final round in the 3-meter dive. Madden finished 10th in the finals with a score of 590.95. Whitner finished 18th with 546.35 points, which was her first career Zone final.
The men failed to advance to the final rounds as Goss placed 21st in the 1-meter, narrowly missing the top 18, which he needed to move on. Farrow was 29th overall in the preliminary rounds with a score of 231.35.
Diving coach Bryan Gillooly remains optimistic about his divers going into the last day of competition.
"Alex and Dalton have been competing well,” Gillooly said. “Alex just missed out on the final on 3-meter, but gained some great experience. “Emma did a great job in making the final on 3-meter as a freshman.”
Madden has yet to qualify for a spot in the Championships, but coach Gillooly thinks she will achieve that on her last day.
“Although Brooke has not qualified yet, she is still in the hunt. She was on the bubble in both events down to the last dive and unfortunately came up a little short,” Gillooly said. “It's all or nothing tomorrow – we are excited and up for the challenge."
Follow Jacob McManamon on Twitter @jmcmanamon97 and contact him at jmcmanamon@alligator.org.
Sophomore diver Brook Madden came two spots shy of qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 1-meter dive.
