SWIMMING AND DIVING: Divers attempt to qualify for NCAA Tournament
Tien Tran plummets during a dive Friday, October 12, 2007, during the Intrasquad scrimmage meet at Beyer Hall. The Cyclones’ next meet will be the Big 12 Relays at Beyer Hall on October 19. Photo: Josh Harrell/Iowa State Daily
March 12, 2009
This weekend in Columbia, Missouri, two Iowa State divers will put all of their season’s work on the line as they attempt to qualify for NCAA Nationals. Tien Tran and Kali Fryklund qualified for this NCAA Zone D Diving with their outstanding scores at the Big 12 Championship.
“The plan is to come off of the Big 12s and improve on what we did there,” said diving coach Jeff Warrick . “Tien has a very good chance of qualifying, but it will be a tough challenge to do so.”
Tien is coming off of a good weekend at the Big 12 Championship where she placed fifth in platform, fourth in the 3 meter and fourth in the 1 meter.
“Tien has to be at her best in order to qualify,” Warrick said. “The level of competition is really tough and she needs to have no mistakes. We are shooting for her to be at the 300-point level in both the 1 and 3 meter competitions.”
Over this season, Tien has been great in the 3 meter, as she has won 14 times. Kali’s biggest strength is platform diving. Although there have been only two meets where platform was one of the events, Fryklund has done well. Fryklund finished with a 7th place with a score of 211.75, which qualified her for the Zone Championships.
The two have had a week to attempt to perfect their dives.
“We have been working not so much on the dives, but being consistent at a high level,” Warrick said. “We’re really focusing on quality, not quantity.”
Ten different divers will advance on to Nationals. To qualify for the meet, divers have to put up a score of 265 on 1-meter, 280 on 3-meter or 225 on platform.
If any diver finishes in the top four of any of the events, she will automatically qualify. One of the top divers competing in this zone is Anastasia Pozdniakova of Houston. Anastasia was a silver medalist in the Beijing Olympics in 3-meter synchronized diving for Russia.
The meet begins Friday and ends on Saturday. Along with the Cyclones, divers from all Big 12 teams will be represented: Houston, Arkansas, St. Louis, Texas Christian, Southern Methodist, Southern Illinois and Missouri State.
