Roman finishes 18th on one-meter

FAYETTEVILLE— University of Arkansas sophomore diver Alex Roman placed 18th on the 1-meter springboard Friday on the first day of the NCAA Zone “D” Diving Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Roman, looking to qualify for her first NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, scored a total of 447.15 in the 1-meter event Friday afternoon. She was the only Razorback diver to advance to the final of the event. In the preliminaries, Roman placed 15th with a mark of 244.65.

“Alex dove very, very well in the preliminaries of the event,” Arkansas diving coach Dale Shultz said. “She struggled to find her rhythm in the finals but I was extremely pleased with her first round of dives. If she had repeated her performance from the prelims in the finals, she probably would have qualified for NCAAs.”

Fellow sophomore Liana Bugslag placed 30th with a score of 185.60.

“We did not have any expectations for Liana on 1-meter,” Schultz said. “Today was to get her head in the game as she prepares for her best event, the platform, on Sunday.”

Competition continues Saturday when divers will compete in the 3-meter springboard. Platform diving will close the championships Sunday morning. Preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. with finals set for 1 p.m

The University of Houston’s Anatasia Pozdniakova won the 1-meter competition with a total score of 683.55. Also qualifying for NCAAs were Minnesota’s Kelci Bryant, Texas A&M’s Jaele Patrick and Texas’ Maren Taylor.

Twelve total divers from all three events will qualify for the NCAA Championships meet, March 18-20, in West Lafayette, Ind.