After three days of diving from Mar. 7-9 at the Texas A&M Natatorium, several Aggies earned their ticket to the national NCAA meet in Atlanta.
On the first day of the meet, sophomore Tyler Henschel was the first Aggie to earn a spot to the national meet. Henschel earned the final qualifying spot by scoring a total of 753.65 points in a total of 12 dives in the three-meter springboard. Freshman Sam Thornton earned eighth place falling one spot short of qualifications.
After a tough outing at the SEC Championship two weeks ago, junior Madison Hudkins was able to bounce back by placing second in the three meter springboard. Hudkins battled reigning national champion Yu Zhou from Minnesota.
Hudkins told 12thman.com she was happy with the way she was able to bounce back in this meet after initially injuring her knee at SEC Championships and again on Monday.
”I’m coming off of SECs, which weren’t great for me, and yesterday on the one-meter, which wasn’t great. I had to change something up,” Hudkins told 12thman.com. “I couldn’t be as physically strong, so I wanted to make sure I was mentally strong.”
Despite not earning a qualifying score in the three-meter springboard dive, Thornton was able to punch his ticket to nationals by winning the one-meter springboard event. Thornton, who was in third place heading into the final round, scored a 72.00 to win the event.
Freshman diver Alais Kalonji was able to qualify in the platform dive portion of the competition. Kalonji, who broke her foot in the opening meet of her first season, told 12thman.com that she is pleased with the way her season has turned out despite a rough start.
“I had a rough start to my season,” Kalonji told 12thman.com “So it’s really nice to be able to come back like this and progress and succeed.”
The Aggies will compete in the NCAA Championships on Mar. 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia.
