Freece Set for NCAA Zone Diving Championships
3/6/2022 11:07:22 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Liberty sophomore Maddie Freece will compete in the 2022 NCAA Zone Diving Championships, held this week at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md.
Freece will be competing to earn a spot in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, which will be held in Atlanta, Ga., March 16-19.
The NCAA Zone Championships will begin on Monday with women’s one-meter springboard ad will continue on Tuesday with three-meter springboard. Platform will be contested on Wednesday. Freece will compete in both one-meter and three-meter springboard, with each day beginning at noon.
How to Follow the Lady Flames
Live results will be available through DiveMeets.com.
What’s at Stake
Zone A will receive five qualifications to the NCAA Championships in both one-meter and three-meter diving, based off of last year’s performance by Zone A divers at nationals.
The top 18 divers from morning prelims will qualify for evening finals, with all scores carrying over. Each of those 18 divers will complete their full allotment of six dives in the evening, and the top combined scores from morning and evening will advance to nationals.
There will be 77 entrants in one-meter diving and 61 in three-meter.
Four of last year’s NCAA qualifiers in one-meter are back in Zone A this year, in Teagan Moravek and Izzi Mroz from Virginia Tech, Pitt’s Amy Read and Navy’s Hannah Montau. Moravek, Read and Virginia’s Jennifer Bell return after qualifying for NCAA’s on three-meter last year.
Last year, Moravek won one-meter with 593 points, while the final national qualifier out of Zone A was Navy’s Hannah Montau, who scored 508.65. Freece scored 482.95 for 14th place on one-meter springboard.
Also, at the 2021 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, Virginia’s Jocelyn Porter had the top three-meter score, at 619.75. The final qualifier for nationals was Pitt’s Amy Read (564.85). Maddie Freece scored 535 points, good for ninth place.
How She Qualified
Freece will make her second appearance at NCAA Zone Championships, and this is the fourth straight year that Liberty will be represented at Zones. Last year, Freece finished a program-best ninth on three-meter and 14th on one-meter at the Zone Championships.
Freece is a two-time Most Outstanding Diver of the CCSA Championship Meet, winning one-meter diving and finishing third on one-meter at the 2022 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships.
A native of Lansdale, Pa., Freece won three-meter diving at this year’s CCSA Championships, scoring a program-record 320.75 points in the process. She scored 305.90 in the A Final of three-meter diving, good for a third-place finish. The sophomore has four CCSA medals, including three gold medals.
Last season, Freece was named CCSA Women’s Diver of the Year. She was also voted 2021 VaSID State Co-Rookie Diver of the Year and was named to the VaSID All-State second team.
Freece is attempting to qualify for the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, held March 16-19 at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga.
