University of Richmond Athletics
Chiulli And Rokop Continue Season At NCAA Zones
03/08/2015 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Richmond swimming and diving has two divers competing in the NCAA Zones meet Monday and Tuesday in Buffalo, New York. The Zone meet commences Monday, March 9, with the women's 3m springboard and proceeds to the women's 1m event on Tuesday at the University of Buffalo's Natatorium.
Sophomore Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Massachusetts) and freshman Laura Rokop (Carmel, Indiana) both qualified for the Zone meet, which is the equivalent of a regional championship, with the top divers advancing to the NCAA Championships March 19-21 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I am excited about how much our team accomplished already this season,” said Richmond head diving coach Sean Letsinger. “We are going into this meet with our focus on trying to be as consistent as possible with no concrete expectations. We are just focusing on what we can do but we are confident that we are consistent, we can seriously contend for some spots at the NCAA's. Most importantly, though, we are going to have fun and learn from our experience here regardless of the outcome.”
Unlike regular-season events, at the Zones, the scores carry over for the divers who qualify for finals, making the score for the six dives in the preliminary program vital towards the final score in each event.
Chiulli won Richmond's first Atlantic 10 Conference gold medal just three weeks ago, posting a 314.60 in the 3m for a new school record in the event. She was fourth in the 1m and captured Richmond's first Most Outstanding Diver award at the A-10 Championship meet in February.
Rokop qualified for the Zones after her score of 267.59 in Richmond's dual meet against James Madison on January 24, following her near-Zone-qualifying score of 264.10 in a meet with La Salle and Fordham just one week before.
Rokop finished seventh in the 1m and ninth in the 3m at the A-10 Championships as a freshman. She was the second-best freshman score in the 1m and third-best rookie in the 3m at the Championships in Ohio.
Chiulli qualified for the Zones last year, which took place near Blacksburg, Virginia. She finished 15th in the 3m event, making finals in that event. She finished 21st in the 1m, just missing the finals in that event.
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