Salamone lands diving berth for NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
AUSTIN, Texas -- UT sophomore Kara-Jayne Salamone rallied for a second-place finish in the women's platform-diving event to secure a diving bid for the upcoming NCAA Championships Sunday in the final day of the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Meet at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. With a fourth-place total of 210.40 after the preliminary round, Salamone (Cooper City, Fla.) improved dramatically in the finals as the top point scorer with a round of 264.55. All totaled, Salamone took second place at 474.95 to secure her bid for competition at this week's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis. "Kara put herself in a hole with her first dive on her first list, but she was tough and never gave up," said UT diving coach Matt Scoggin. "She put together a great second list and really came through with her second dive, the reverse two-and-a-half tuck, to secure her berth." Missouri's Kendra Melnychuk won the event with a score of 497.00 to earn a NCAA diving bid. UT junior Jessica Livingston (The Woodlands, Texas), the 2006 U.S. national champion on the platform, elected to dive only from the five-meter platform and placed eighth at 359.45. Texas junior Mary Yarrison (Springfield, Va.) also dove exclusively from the five-meter platform and took 11th at 340.35. Salamone joined Yarrison, Livingston and sophomore Kathryn Kelly (Longwood, Fla.) as Texas diving qualifiers for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships set for March 8-10 in Minneapolis, Minn. NCAA Zone "D" qualifiers
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