University of Houston Athletics
Divers Ready to Go at NCAA Championships
3/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 17, 2004
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - University of Houston divers Azul Almazan and Anna Kiess will compete against the nation's top collegians this weekend during the 2004 NCAA Championships at Texas A&M.
The meet runs Thursday through Saturday with diving sessions beginning around 1 p.m., at the Student Recreation Center in College Station, Texas. The finals are slated to start at 7 p.m. each day.
The women will compete on the 1-meter springboard on Thursday, 3-meter springboard on Friday and close out the meet on the platform on Saturday.
This marks the second consecutive season that Almazan has qualified for the NCAA event and the first for Kiess, a freshman from Berlin, Germany.
Both divers qualified for the annual NCAA postseason event after solid performances at the NCAA Zone D Diving meet last weekend at UH's own Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.
Kiess scored 503.00 points on the 3-meter board last weekend to finish second and followed that one day later with 391.45 points on the platform to earn a third-place showing.
Earlier in the meet, the 2004 Conference USA Freshman Diver of the Year collected 525.75 points on the 1-meter springboard to finish fourth.
Almazan, the 2004 C-USA Diver of the Meet and four-time C-USA Diver of the Week honoree in 2003-04, won first place on the platform at the Zone meet with 454.45 points, nearly 50 points better than her closest competitor.
The Mexico City, native, and elder stateswoman of the Cougar diving corps, finished sixth on the 1-meter springboard and seventh on the 3-meter board.
Both divers will be led by UH head diving coach Jane Figueiredo, who has established herself as one of the nation's best. The 2004 season marks the 15th and 16th times that a Figueiredo pupil has qualified for the NCAA Championships.
The Zimbabwe native is a three-time C-USA Diving Coach of the Year and was honored as the NCAA Diving Coach of the Year in both 2003 and 2001.
A year ago, the Cougars earned 41 points at the NCAA Championships to tie for 20th nationally. It was the best showing by the Cougars at an NCAA event since 1986.
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