Watson Wins 3-Meter in Tucson

TUCSON -- After two days at the Wildcat Diving Invitational, the BYU dive team finished with many top performances, highlighted by a first-place finish for Brandon Watson on the 3-meter board Saturday.

“It was a great competition where our divers were able to showcase their great talent,” said BYU diving coach Keith Russell. “We dove a lot better on Saturday than on Friday and I am very pleased with Brandon and Tawni’s performances, along with our freshmen.”

The women competed on the 3-meter board on Friday while the men were on the 1-meter board. Saturday the women competed on the 1-meter board while the men competed on the 3-meter.

Senior Tawni Jones finished third on the 3-meter board behind one Stanford diver and one Arizona State diver. She tallied a preliminary score of 287.30 and a final score of 292.55. She finished second with her final score alone behind Margaret Hostage of Stanford.

Freshman Dayna Christensen placed ninth in the preliminaries with a score of 252.30 while freshman Mikenna Cloward finished 15th with a score of 236.75. In the consol finals, Cloward placed third out of eight (253.15) while Christensen placed seventh (235.10).

Watson not only won the preliminary round (369.80) on the 3-meter board, but he also won the finals (366.00). Freshman Nic Suder placed sixth (311.55) in the preliminaries on the same board, and fifth in the finals (275.70). In the consol finals senior Ron Morris won with a score of 323.90 on the 3-meter while Sam Hatch placed fourth (294.10) and Travis Day sixth (290.90).

Jones finished fourth on the 1-meter board in the prelims with a score of 263.30 and then placed third in the finals with a score of 294.45. Cloward, Emily Woods and Ava Jackman all made it to the consol finals, placing third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Cougars will be back on the boards Dec. 4-5 to host the BYU Diving Invitational.