The NCAA Zone D Diving Championships will take place this week in Houston, Texas, and Iowa State will have representation for the first time in two years. 

ISU freshman diver Elyse Brouillette will head down to the University of Houston’s campus to compete in the two-day meet on March 11-12. 

Brouillette is coming off of a solid performance at the Big 12 in Austin finishing in fourth place on the 1-meter board and fifth on the 3-meter board.  Brouillette had already qualified for NCAAs however prior to the Big 12 meets with her regular season score at Minnesota of 289.50 in her first ever collegiate meet.

“The biggest thing right now is her mindset,” said diving coach Jeff Warrick. “She is a freshman and I know she is very capable, but I don’t want her to put too much pressure on herself. We are hoping that she can go in to the meet just trying to dive and not worrying about qualifying. We want her to enjoy the experience and let the results be how they are.”

The Zone D meet for the NCAAs will feature six dives from both the 1-meter board and the 3-meter board and also five dives from the platform, much similar to the Big 12 Championship meet. The only difference this time is that the scores from the prelims will carry over to the final rounds.

The freshman from Marian High School in Omaha, Nebraska, has led the Cyclone diving team with her scores most of the year and was named Diver of the Week on Dec. 12, 2012, for the Big 12 conference. 

“We will be seeing a lot of tough schools,” Warrick said. “Some teams we have seen such as Iowa and Minnesota, but there are a lot of great and experienced divers. There are quite a lot of seniors who have been to NCAAs before. Also, schools like LSU and Arkansas will be there, schools we haven’t seen at all. It will be a lot of great diving.”