It’s unusual for a freshman to come as close to qualifying for the NCAA Championships as ISU diver Tien Tran did.

Tran placed ninth on 1-meter springboard and platform to go along with an 11th place showing on the 3-meter springboard at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, held March 2 to 4 in Austin, Texas.

The two ninth place finishes left her two places short of the seventh place finish needed to move on, but how close she came to qualifying is even more impressive. Tran was just under 12 points from seventh on platform and just under 20 points from reaching the pinnacle of the sport in the 1-meter event. In diving, a competitor can make up that many points on any given dive.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick said Tran’s performance was the best freshman performance of any diver he has coached.

“She got a personal best on platform and came really close to getting one on 3-meter,” Warrick said. “In a situation, at Zones, where the judges are not as lenient, she may have had her personal best.”

Tran also showed a knack for improving from the preliminaries to the finals. On the 3-meter springboard, Tran was 15th after prelims but moved up four spots in the finals. On platform, she repeated that feat, moving up five spots from her 14th place preliminary performance.

Warrick said Tran did an outstanding job in the finals of each event after some performances during preliminaries that weren’t her best.

“Especially on three meter and platform, they weren’t what we were hoping for,” Warrick said. “She has done better, but really in finals on all three boards, she did really well.”

Warrick also said competing at Zones as a freshman will help Tran the next three years.

“She gained a lot of experience from the meet and that will help her,” Warrick said. “She’ll know what to expect next year walking into this meet.”

Next up for the Cyclones will be senior Lauren Breunig closing out her ISU career at the NCAA Championships on March 8 to 10 in Minneapolis . Breunig will compete in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle and the 200 individual medley.