University of Minnesota Athletics
Two Gopher Divers Earn NCAA Berths
3/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The Minnesota men's swimming and diving team received a huge boost as divers Drew Brown and Kristoffer Jorgensen earned berths to the NCAA Championships with their performances at the NCAA Zone D Championships in College Station, Texas. The Gophers will take 10 overall competitors to the NCAA Championships March 27-29 in Columbus, Ohio.
Brown, who placed fifth in the 3-meter springboard competition on Friday and sixth on the 1-meter on Saturday, completed a nice weekend by taking fifth on the 10-meter platform this afternoon. Brown posted a two-list score of 684.90. The biggest surprise was Jorgensen, who placed fourth on the platform to secure a berth as a freshman. Jorgensen picked up 697.55 points over the two sessions including a score of 358.50 in the finals.
Senior Tyler Jepsen finished 10th with a score of 504.40 to wrap up his collegiate career. Missouri's Greg Destephen won the platform title with 757.90 points.
"This is an amazing accomplishment for our diving program," head swimming and diving coach Dennis Dale said. "Wenbo (Chen) has done an incredible job this season and it will be great for our entire team to have two divers representing the University of Minnesota at the NCAA Championships."
Minnesota qualified two divers for the NCAA meet for the first time since 1991 when Scott Upper and Omar Boyd qualified for the Gophers and both earned All-America honors. Shaun Kennedy was Minnesota's last NCAA qualifier in diving, earning a berth in 2007.
It has been an incredible diving season for the Gophers under first-year head coach Wenbo Chen. All three divers scored at the Big Ten Championships. Brown reached the finals in all three events while Jorgensen reached two finals.
Players Mentioned
