University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Set for NCAA Zone Diving Championships
3/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 9, 2011
HOUSTON - The University of Houston diving team will start its quest to qualify for the national championships when the Cougars travel to the NCAA Zone Diving Championships at the University of Texas' Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, March 11-13.
Defending back-to-back NCAA Diving Coach of the Year, Jane Figueiredo, will lead divers Lacey Truelove and Julia Lonnegren into the three-day qualifying meet that starts with the 3-meter competition on Friday, the 1-meter on Saturday and the platform diving event on Sunday. Per NCAA Zone Diving rules, once a diver qualifies in one event, she will automatically advance to the NCAA Championships on all three boards.
"We've prepared really well, so it's out of my hands now and up to them to take care of it," Figueiredo said. "They are physically and mentally ready. We had a great conference (meet), so that puts them in a good position for this, but this meet is like no other. You have to stay very steady and calm but aggressive at the same time."
It's a combination that her team has found to work. With just two divers on this season's squad, the Cougars have made a big impact despite its size. Truelove and Lonngren have a total of 17 event wins this season and a combined six Conference USA Diver of the Week awards.
Truelove, a senior All-American, comes into the NCAA Zone Championships with 14 event wins to her credit. The London, Ontario native has won every platform event she has entered this season and begins the weekend after clinching the conference title in both platform and 3-meter.
The Cougar senior will look to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the third time in her career. The first two trips (2008, 2010) each resulted in Truelove returning to Houston as an All-American. Both times she earned All-America status in the platform event by placing in the top eight.
Lonnegren was just shy of qualifying for last season's NCAA Championships after being named the C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year. In her second season at Houston, the 1-meter specialist has three event wins to her credit heading into the Zone Championships.
"Lacey is very experienced at this meet, so she know what needs to be done," Figueiredo said. "Julia is very inexperienced at this meet so she'll have to step it up. They both are tough girls and they really want it. They just need to stay focused on the goal."
That goal will be obtained if the Cougar duo can go to battle against the nation's elite competition. Truelove has earned wins against top divers from nationally ranked programs SMU, Texas, Arkansas and LSU already this season, proving that she can hold her own amongst the country's best.
Although she has produced a tough schedule to prepare her team for the NCAAs, Figueiredo knows that her divers haven't seen all of the competition that awaits them in Austin.
"We've sort of anticipated who the competition is going to be, but there are a lot of heavy-hitter schools that will be there that we haven't seen yet," Figueiredo said. "Like Minnesota, who has the returning champion on the 3-meter (Kelci Bryant). If Lacey can hang with her then we will be in great shape."
"Iowa and Missouri definitely have a couple of very good divers, and we don't compete much against them. So there is a good group of 6-8 divers that we haven't seen at all this year that are going to be factors in the meet."
This weekend will mark the first season in three years that the Cougars will venture into NCAA competition without two-time NCAA champion and last season's NCAA Diver of the Year, Anastasia Pozdniakova. Nevertheless, Figueiredo and company have built a tightly knit bond that she expects will help Houston continue its storied tradition.
"The girls want to do well for me and they want to do well for UH," Figueiredo said. "But the important thing is that they stay focused on what the goal is. We've got to get to the NCAAs. We're close, and that gives them a little comfort and reassurance that we're going to get out there and do what we need to do."
Preliminary competition begins each day at 10 a.m.
Players Mentioned
