March 10, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Illinois State senior diver Emily Hirt finished her career on the one-meter board at Ohio State in the NCAA Zone C Diving Qualifying Meet. The meet began Friday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m. with a preliminary round. From the preliminary round the top 18 divers moved on to the final round of the one-meter board. Hirt placed in the top 40 regionally with a score of 191.25 on the one-meter board. Although she did not qualify for the final round, she was pleased to have been a part of the experience.
"It wasn't my best meet," said Hirt. "I am excited for the opportunity to be here and this is fun to be a part of. After today I am used to the way the meet works and tomorrow I should be ready to compete on the three-meter board. Later this afternoon Tom (Davidson) and I will have practice. We work on a few dives and then tonight I will get rest. Tomorrow is truly my last competition. I just want to go out in style, have fun and enjoy every dive."
Saturday, March 11 at 10:30 a.m. the three-meter preliminary round will begin. Hirt will have the opportunity to make it into the top 18 out of 42 divers and continue on to the final round. The divers in the final round then have the opportunity to advance to the NCAA Diving Championships based on their performance in the Zone meet.
Head diving coach Tom Davidson felt Hirt competed well.
"Emily did well on three dives and not so well on the other three," said Davidson. "She gave a lot of effort, she just wasn't a hundred percent today, maybe it was nerves. We are going to have practice this evening to loosen her up and work on a few things. We are going to build on today's performance and tomorrow not hold anything back. Our goal is to take one dive at a time and keep focused."
