Divers return with strong showing at Air Force Invite

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo – Nicholas Suder, David Corless and Matt Hopper all made finals to represent the BYU men's and women's diving teams during the Air Force Invitational at the USAFA Cadet Natatorium.

"This was a great opportunity to see where we stand in preparation for our conference meet," head diving coach Keith Russell said. "We didn't dive our best this weekend, but we will take what we learned and get ready for conference. I thought Nicholas Suder, David Corless and Matt Hopper all dove well at the meet and were all able to make finals."

FRIDAY

Suder and Corless both made the finals in the men's 3-meter event by finishing in the top-eight spots after preliminaries. Suder qualified in third place, and Corless qualified in sixth place. Suder placed sixth in the finals with a score of 303.45, and Corless placed seventh with a score of 300.40. Trayton Speth finished the qualifying round in ninth place with a score of 278.70, Hopper finished in 13th with a score of 265.40, and Edward Young finished in 16th with a score of 254.50.

Raleigh Williams Taylor just missed qualifying for the 1-m finals, placing ninth with a score of 260.55. Dayna Christensen finished 17th with a score of 234.40, Mackenzie Rands finished 27th with a score of 219.50, and Haley Francois finished 37th with a score of 194.90.

The last event of the night, was the women's platform. Rands was the highest finisher for the Cougars and finished 18th with a score of 177.90. Christensen placed 21st with a score of 175.10, Taylor came in 24th with a score of 172.15, and Francois finished 35th with a score of 140.80.

SATURDAY

Both Hopper and Suder reached the finals in the 1-m event by placing fifth and seventh, respectively. Suder placed fourth in the finals with a score of 313.00, and Hopper placed eighth with a score of 269.20. Trayton Speth just missed the finals, finishing ninth with a score of 269.90. Edward Young finished 15th with a score of 235.10, and Corless finished 20th with a score of 209.30.

The final event of the weekend for the women was the 3m. Christensen finished ninth with a score of 268.30, just missing the finals. Taylor finished 17th with a score of 245.80, Rands finished 20th with a score of 240.10, and Francois finished 25th with a score of 234.55.

The last event of the meet was the men's platform. There were no finals so the score of their dives determined the men's placement. Corless was the highest finisher, placing eighth with a score of 230.05. Hopper finished 11th with a score of 218.50, Suder placed 15th with a score of 211.05, Young placed 17th with a score of 195.65, and Speth rounded out the team with a 19th-place finish with 180.95.

This was the last dive meet for the Cougars until the MPSF conference meet. Conference will take place Feb. 20-23 at Air Force in the USAFA Cadet Natatorium.