MEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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Carpenter and McDowell Qualify for NCAA Nationals

Sunday's results

Meili Carpenter

BUFFALO, NY – Sophomores Meili Carpenter (Boulder, CO/Fairview) and Michael McDowell (Rush, NY/Rush Henrietta) became the first University at Buffalo athletes to qualify for the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships since the school moved into the top echelon of college athletics with their performances in the platform competition at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships on Sunday.

Carpenter won the women's platform event with a 10-dive total score of 413.90 points. Lisa Faulkner of George Mason was second at 384.60 and Katie Griffin of Navy third at 347.80. The trio were the only entrants in the women's competition with the winner guaranteed a spot in the women's national championship meet in Columbus, OH next weekend.

Carpenter entered the finals of the platform event in second place after a preliminary score of 194.85 points for her first five dives. She tallied a total of 219.05 in the finals, the highest total of the three entrants, to take the title. Earlier in the meet, Carpenter finished fifth on the one-meter springboard and sixth on the three-meter springboard.

Michael McDowell

McDowell was the second-place finisher in the men's event as five divers comprised the field with the top two finishers earning a trip to the men's championships in Federal Way, WA starting March 27. McDowell scored a 12-dive total of 550.10 points to finish behind Princeton's Stuart Malcolm, who totaled 674.20 points. Navy's Jonathan Galinski (532.30), Army's Gregory Sievers (506.05) and George Mason's Ryan Metzker (409.90) rounded out the men's field.

McDowell moved up from his fourth-place finish in the preliminaries after scoring 244.95 points in his opening six dives. McDowell scored 305.15 points for his final six dives to move into the second overall spot behind Malcolm. Malcolm was the highest scorer in both the preliminaries (341.35) and finals (332.85).

For Sunday's platform competition, divers were allowed to take off from the five-, seven, or 10-meter heights, depending on which dive was being attempted.

Carpenter is the first woman to earn a spot in the NCAA National Championship field. McDowell is the second man to qualify for the NCAA Championships and the first diver in school history. Kyle Depold qualified for the Men's NCAA National Championships in 1992 when he posted an A Cut mark and UB record time of 19.96 in the 50-yard freestyle at the 1992 ECAC Championships held at UB's Alumni Arena Natatorium.

Zone A qualified five men's and five women's divers from the weekend competition. Pittsburgh divers Alex Volovetski and Jeremy Stultz along with Yale's Jeff Lichtenstein qualfied from the springboard competitions and will be joined by McDowell and Malcolm. From the women's competitions, Carpenter will be joined by Drexel's Kate Hynes, Rider's Amanda Burke, Harvard's Samantha Papadakis and Boston Unviersity's Tess Waresmith. Zone A includes NCAA Division I programs from New England south to Virginia. Five zone meets were held this weekend with Buffalo, Auburn, AL, Columbus, Houston and Oklahoma City serving as host sites.