Divers head to Lancer Diving Invite

Grand Canyon's diving team heads to Riverside, California, for the Lancer Diving Invite on Saturday. The Lopes will face WAC conference foes California Baptist and Air Force in addition to UC San Diego, which moved to Division I last year. The event will start at 10 a.m. at Lancer Aquatic Center.

Stats can be found on Divemeets.com.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW:

SCHEDULED EVENTS: Divers will compete on the 1M and 3M boards for a total of four events. The Lancer Invite will include prelims where each diver will receive six dives with the top eight advancing to the championship rounds.
DIVER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Lizzy Mcknight earned WAC Diver of the Week after earning a third-place finish on the 3-meter board (273.15) and fourth place in the 1-meter event against the Tigers. The Kent, Washington native earned a total of 266.55 points in the 1 meter for her first NCAA zone-qualifying score of the season. This is 10 points higher than her score at last year's WAC Championships (255.00).
NEWCOMERS: The women's swim and dive team welcome its largest recruiting class with a total of 13 newcomers on the roster this season with 11 freshman and two transfers. This class will feature athletes from eight countries and four different states, and a plethora of state and national champions. In addition, the men's team welcomes five new additions to its 2021-22 squad. This class features state and international champions, All-Americans and an Olympic qualifier.

SCOUTING THE TEAMS

The Lancers are led by diving coach Jeff Couto who is in his sixth season at CBU. In the 2020-21 season with only one dive invite competition, the Lancers earned eight spots in the finals, and collected four podium spots at the WAC Championships. Now senior Kiree Lowe and junior Evan Honer led each team to WAC Championship wins. Lowe took second in the platform with a score of 212.80. Evan Honer earned 2020-21 Male Diver of the Year honors after sweeping the WAC Championships in all three diving events. Honer also broke the CBU and WAC Championship record on the platform with a score of 358.50. Coach Couto received the Male Diving Coach of the Year award from the Lancer's performance.

Air Force is led by Stan Curnow in his 29th season at the Academy. The Falcons saw one diver, senior Cole Armagost, on the podium at the 2020-21 WAC Championships. The Falcon's men's and women's diving team sent one diver each to the 2021 NCAA Zone E competition, sophomore Kinzie Etzelmiller who has qualified in her first season and Armagost.

University of California San Diego diving team is under the reigns of newly hired head diving coach Abigail Smith. The Tritons began their transition to Division I in July of 2020. UCSD will see their first competition in the Lopes and Lancers since the NCAA Championships were canceled.

WHAT'S AHEAD?

The Lopes will head to Los Angeles, California for a tri-meet with Loyola Marymount and Seattle U on Oct. 22-23. The time of event is TBA.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lizzy Mcknight

Grand Canyon University Athletics