Carpenter Places 27th at NCAA National Championships

Meili Carpenter

COLUMBUS, OH – The University at Buffalo’s Meili Carpenter (Boulder, CO/Fairview) finished 27th in a field of 40 entrants Thursday afternoon in the one-meter diving competition as the 2008 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships got underway at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavillion.

Carpenter turned in a six-dive total of 249.25 points for the 27th-place finish in the preliminary round. The top 16 divers moved on to the final round with the consolation event for divers 9-16 held earlier this afternoon and the championship final for the top eight divers to be held later this evening.

Of Carpenter’s six dives, she scored highest on her fourth attempt, a reverse 1.5 somersault pike, with a score of 48.00 points from the judges. The 48.00 points were tied for the fourth-highest score of the round among the 40 entrants.

Hawaii’s Emma Friesen was the top scorer in the preliminary round with a six-dive total of 304.70 points.

Carpenter became UB’s first women’s athlete to compete in the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships thanks to her victory in the platform competition at last weekend’s NCAA Zone A Championships held at Alumni Arena. The top five divers from the zone advanced to the national meet. Carpenter was the second-highest finisher from Zone A with Drexel’s Kate Hynes placing 20th. Harvard’s Samantha Papadakis was 28th, Tess Waresmith of Boston University took 34th and Amanda Burke of Rider was 39th. Toledo’s Megan McKinley, the only other diver from the Mid-American Conference, placed 22nd.

Earlier in the day, Carpenter was named the MAC’s Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Week based on her performance at the zone meet.

Carpenter is expected to compete in the three-meter competition on Friday and the platform diving event on Saturday.