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The last of our Swimming and Diving previews before tomorrow brings us to the Divers. Diving is a little tougher to preview: I know little about the discipline beyond the very basics of scoring; UB's excellent stats page doesn't keep up with their divers quite like it does the swimmers; there's lots of variation from meet to meet in an individual's scores; and last year UB didn't really have clear-cut top divers on either team.
That said, both the Men and Women feature multiple divers who earned points at the MAC Championships last year and return nearly everyone.
Must Reads
Must Reads
Men's Divers
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Since UB hosted the (regional?) Zone Championships - the precursor for divers to the NCAA Championships - I'm unclear how meaningful an entry there is. However, Troy Birdsall (16th, 9th), Derek Linebaugh (8th,13th), Dan Roche (14th, 16th), and Christian Santos (12th, 15th) all earned points for UB in both the 1m and 3m events.
Nick Rodriguez is a transfer from Minnesota. I can't find any 3m scores for him, but his season best at 1m was 308, which would put him in the middle of UB's pack.
UB does lose Cade Bennett, who wasn't always their top diver, but had the highest highs. Bennett set the school record at 3m last year, was 9th and 5th in the pair of events
Must Reads
Must Reads
Women's Divers
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Across the board the women are a little less deep in the diving pit. The clear top three for UB last year were Mackenzie Moss, Abbey Croce, and Valerie Lortie. Together, they combined to earn points four times at the MAC Championships. Croce finished 7th and 16th at the two heights, while Moss (15th, 1 meter) and Lortie (13th, 3 meter) each made the consolation finals.
Only Elyse Piseczny is new to the group. She's a freshman from Schenectady, but I can't find too much on her. I don't think she brings the NYS resume that Moss and Croce did.
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This is the last of our previews leading up to Swimming and Diving's season opener in Florida tomorrow. Prior previews:
Men's butterfly and freestyle - 25 September
Women's breaststroke, backstroke, and IM - 26 September
Women's butterfly and freestyle - 29 September
Men's breaststroke, backstroke, and IM - 30 September