Callie Eaglestone won the 1-meter springboard event on March 9 at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, securing a place in the upcoming NCAA National Championships. The competition took place at the Wall Aquatic Center.
Eaglestone’s victory marks a milestone as she became the first woman diver in Utah history to win at Zones. Her total score was 574.45, finishing four points ahead of second place. Last season, she finished fifth in this event.
“Today went extraordinarily well,” head coach Richard Marschner said. “Callie just has a different level of competition, she was absolutely lights out. She’s the first zone champion we’ve had since 2016 and the first Utah woman to do so so spectacular job from her and Kathryn Grant to punch tickets to NCAAs.”
Eaglestone scored 280.75 points during preliminaries and entered finals in third position before moving up to win. Kathryn Grant also advanced from prelims and improved her standing to finish fourth overall with a total of 555.55, earning her own spot at nationals.
On the men’s side, Petersen was Utah’s only competitor for the day. He placed eighth after prelims with a score of 349.35 but climbed to fifth overall in finals with a total of 708.10, qualifying for the NCAA Championship as well.
“Elias punched his ticket as well, so today went as well as could be expected,” Marschner said. “Looking forward to the rest of the meet, we have a little bit of the pressure off, and we get Attila Bernatsky, Alex Just, Annalise Shrader and Cierra Cole into the meet tomorrow.”
The championships continue on Tuesday with women’s 3-meter springboard and men’s platform events scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m.
