The ISU divers kicked off competition on Thursday at the Zone D Diving Championships in Iowa City.

The three-day competition began with the 1-meter dive, and through the first day, senior Sarah Nelson placed 16th in the event while teammate Jessica Henderson placed 36th.

Nelson started strong, posting scores of 49.20 on her first dive and then struggled during the middle of her 12 total dive performance posting scores below 40 points. But she was able to gather herself in the final round, where she posted a final score of 47.50.

Nelson’s total score after 12 dives was 504.85 points, the second-highest score ever by a Cyclone at the zone diving meet on 1-meter.

Henderson, on the other hand struggled at her first Zone Championship meet. After her first preliminary dives Henderson’s score ranked near the bottom of the leaderboards at the end of the day.

But Henderson was also able to rebound after posting a score of 46.80 from her forward 2.5 somersault pike. After six total dives Henderson’s final score of the day was 210.50.

The Cyclones will begin competition once again on Friday for the 3-meter dives. Preliminary action begins at 4:30 p.m. followed immediately by the final round.