Gillis Narrowly Misses 3-Meter Finals On Day One
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Arkansas diver Nicole Gillis fell 2.15 points (268.85) shy of qualifying for the event finals in the 3m springboard preliminary round Tuesday at the Tennessee Diving Invite in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Gillis started the morning off strong, tying for second place (112.70) in the event, with scores of 56.70 and 56.00 on her first two dives, respectively.
After dropping to seventh place following the third dive, Gillis made up some ground by scoring her third 50-plus point dive of the event with a score of 50.40 on her fourth attempt, to climb back to fourth place with two dives remaining.
She maintained her top-10 standing through the fifth dive with a score of 45.00 to give her a five-dive total of 247.10, good for sixth place. Gillis struggled with her final prelim dive, scoring a 21.75 to fall to 12th place, where she would eventually be jumped to knock her down to 13th and out of the afternoon finals.
Arkansas divers Molly Harvie (23rd – 243.80), Marissa Green (33rd – 232.35) and Caroline Welch (35th – 229.95) all finished in the top 35, and Samantha Nelson came in 51st (159.10).
The Southeastern Conference made up 11 of the top 12 final spots, with the entire top 10 belonging to SEC divers. Of the top 20 divers in the event, 17 were from SEC schools.
Competition will continue Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. CT with the women’s 1m springboard prelims. The top 12 divers in the event will move on to the afternoon finals that will immediately follow.
Live scoring can be found on DiveMeets.com.
Schedule of Events
Wednesday, January 4
10:30 a.m. CT
Women’s 1m Springboard Prelims
1:18 p.m. CT
Women’s 1m Springboard Finals
Thursday, January 5
10 a.m. CT
Women’s Platform Prelims
12:20 p.m. CT
Women’s Platform Finals
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