March 21, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Juniors Steven LoBue and Amanda Miller earned their way into the NCAA Championships during Saturday's competitions at the NCAA Region C Diving Zones at Ohio State. LoBue won the 1-meter springboard title with 693.20 points, while Miller was fourth off the 3-meter with 624.90 points.
LoBue's score was 72.65 points higher than Ryan Fagan of Indiana's second-place total of 620.55. The Ewing, N.J. native cruised through prelims, earning over 55.00 points on each of his first six dives, including 60-plus point efforts on dives 3, 5 and 6. He entered finals leading Fagan by almost 50 points.
"I thought it went well," said LoBue, who has qualified for nationals the last two years. "This is the first time this season I've really been consistent when we've competed with a list, so it went well."
LoBue's victory gave him the second of five allocations the NCAA has reserved for region C; the other three qualifiers are Ohio State's Kellen Harkeness and Indiana's Taylor Roberts and Fagan. Harkness moved into the fifth allocation spot (saved for the 1-meter runner-up) since Fagan already was in the fourth spot as the 3-meter's runner-up. The platform champion receives the final allocation.
Purdue senior Josh Karshen, who will need to win the platform title to advance to NCAAs, was seventh off the 1-meter with his total of 569.15 points.
Miller will be making her first trip to the national championships since her freshman year of 2004 following her fourth-place finish. Finishing ahead of Miller were Iowa's Nancilea Underwood (658.30), teammate Carrie McCambridge (641.45) and Indiana's Lindsay Weigel (632.70). Underwood won both springboard competitions this weekend.
Since the NCAA awarded the Region C women with 11 allocations, the top two finishers off the platform advance to the NCAAs along with the top four placers off the 1-meter and top five off the 3-meter.
With there being some duplication among the top finishers of the springboard Saturday and Friday, that has allowed five competitors, including Miller, to move up the list of qualified divers.
"I've been extremely pleased with the whole team this entire week," said Purdue diving coach Adam Soldati. "Amanda had a few misses yesterday, but they were all good misses - she was really going after it, and today she came back like a champion.
"As for Steve, this was a breakthrough meet. He won by almost 75 points, so this was the best competition of his career. He didn't miss a single dive."
The Region C Zone meet concludes Sunday with the platform diving competition, which begins at 11 a.m.