COLUMBUS, Ohio - For the second day in a row, Purdue had four divers place among the top 10 at the Zone C Championships to clinch additional springboard bids to the NCAA Championships.
After finishing among the automatic-qualifying places Thursday, Steele Johnson, Samm Reese, Joe Cifelli and Morgan Meixner only had to be among the top 12 Friday on the opposite springboards. In the men's 1-meter competition, Johnson finished second and Cifelli placed fourth. Samm Reese took fifth and Morgan Meixner 10th in the women's 3-meter competition.
All four Boilermakers have earned the right to compete in both springboard events at the NCAA Championships later this month. Johnson will compete again Saturday on platform. Purdue's Brandon Loschiavo, Emily Meaney, Emily Bretscher and Lexi Vincent also strive to qualify for the NCAA Championships on Saturday.
Johnson has qualified for NCAAs in both springboard events for the second time in his career. He'll now have an opportunity to defend his NCAA titles on both 1-meter and 3-meter.
Cifelli qualified for the national championship meet in both springboard events for the second time in his career, also accomplishing the feat in 2016.
Reese continued her successful senior season by qualifying for NCAAs in both springboard events for the second year in a row.
Meixner is also going back to NCAAs for the second year in a row, but will have an opportunity to compete on 3-meter at the national championship meet for the first time. She posted a list-high score of 52.65 on her final dive of the final to assure she would be among the top 12, moving up to 10th place. She improved on her prelim score by five points, finishing with a list score of 281.9 in the final.
Cifelli climbed from seventh place in the prelim to fourth in the final via a 45-point improvement on his list score (369.5 in the final).
Reese posted nearly identical list scores in the prelim (293.9) and final (293.8).
Johnson was in the first place after the prelim thanks to a list score of 399.8.
The Zone C Championships conclude Saturday with the women's platform competition at 11 a.m. ET and the men's at 2 p.m. The top 10 women and top 11 men are awarded the auto-qualifying bids to NCAAs. Johnson only needs to finish among the top 12 to add the event to his schedule at the national championship meet.
NCAA ZONE C CHAMPIONSHIPS
DAY TWO AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS FOR NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
MEN'S 1-METER (TOP 10 FINISHERS)
Michael Hixon, Indiana
Steele Johnson, Purdue
James Connor, Indiana
Joe Cifelli, Purdue
Sebastian Masterton, Kentucky
Joe Coumos, Notre Dame
Andrew Capobianco, Indiana
Kevin Frebel, Kentucky
Joe Smith, Oakland
Stephen Romanik, Ohio State
WOMEN'S 3-METER (TOP 10 FINISHERS)
Pei Lin, Miami (Ohio)
Jessica Parratto, Indiana
Olivia Rosendahl, Northwestern
Molly Fears, Louisville
Samm Reese, Purdue
Genevieve Angerame, Ohio State
Alexandra Shereda, Eastern Michigan
Nikki Canale, Michigan
Talisa Lemke, Bowling Green
Morgan Meixner, Purdue
PURDUE DIVERS, MEN'S 1-METER
Steele Johnson, 769.3 -- Finished 2nd (369.5 Finals, 399.8 Prelims)
Joe Cifelli, 694.05 -- Finished 4th (369.5 Finals, 324.55 Prelims)
PURDUE DIVERS, WOMEN'S 3-METER
Samm Reese, 587.7 -- Finished 5th (293.9 Finals, 293.8 Prelims)
Morgan Meixner, 558.85 -- Finished 10th (281.9 Finals, 276.95 Prelims)