After the first day of competition, Notre Dame stands in seventh place in the ACC diving championships held in Greensboro, N.C. The Irish failed to qualify any divers for the final round of the three-meter competition, which was held Thursday night.
ACC diving championships. The meet is spread out across three days, with each day featuring the prelims and championship round for each diving event.
Competing this weekend for the Irish are freshmen James Lichtenstein and Joe Coumos and juniors Nick Nemetz, Michael Kreft, and Ted Wagner. Coumos, Nemetz, Kreft and Wagner are slated to represent the Irish in all three dives. The three-meter was held Thursday, with the one-meter, and platform will be held on Friday, and Saturday, respectively.
In Thursday’s three-meter contest, Coumos set the high mark for the Irish, earning 345.5 points in the preliminary round. That total left him in 11th place, just short of the top eight required to qualify for the final. Coumos is not unfamiliar with leading the Irish. He placed first 12 times this season in the one- meter and three- meter competition, including sweeps of both events four times.
Finishing three slots behind Coumos was Kreft, who earned Most Valuable Diver honors for the Irish in the 2013 Big East Diving Championships. He had no such luck in Thursday’s event, claiming 331.1 points, 35.35 points shy of qualifying for the finals round.
Nemetz and Wagner rounded out the Irish performance. Nemetz earned 296.60 for 22nd place and Wagner finished just more than six points behind, claiming 290.05 points and finishing in 24th place.
Notre Dame will get back to work in Greensboro, N.C., tomorrow for the one-meter competition. They are currently tied with Pittsburgh for seventh place out of ten teams in the ACC swimming and diving championships. With 71 points, Virginia Tech remains firmly in the lead after the first day of competition, while Miami is in second place with 54 points.
The Irish swim team will seek to build on their point total over the next five days of competition, two of diving and three of swimming. The results of the diving portion of the meet will combine with the swimming and on March 1, after the conclusion of the swimming portion, the ACC will crown its 2013-2014 swim and dive champion.
