Fresh off a dominating performance at the Zone E diving meet, three members of the ASU men’s dive team will travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for the NCAA National Championships.
Juniors Constantin Blaha and Cameron Bradshaw will join sophomore Riley McCormick at the meet.
The three Sun Devils all qualified for the national championships based upon their scores at the Zone E meet, where McCormick won three events.
The NCAA meet will feature three events and will be spread out over three days. Each Sun Devil will be diving in at least two events while McCormick will compete in all three.
Bradshaw and Blaha will both be diving in the one- and three-meter springboard dives. McCormick is competing in the springboard dives as well, but will also take part in the platform dives.
Having three divers compete from the same team is rare, and ASU diving coach Mark Bradshaw is excited about the opportunity awaiting his team.
“This is the most guys I have ever taken to the meet,” Bradshaw said. “I think we’re pretty confident that we can do very well in every event we are in.”
While Bradshaw may be confident in his team, he does acknowledge that there will be intense competition.
“This is the best in the country so [we have] got to go in there and compete,” Bradshaw said.
McCormick and Blaha will be returning to the National Championships for the second straight year, while Cameron Bradshaw will be making his first appearance at the meet.
“I think [Constantin] and Riley felt they could have done better last year,” Mark Bradshaw said. “Those two want to improve upon what they did a year ago.”
While improving is always a goal for elite-level athletes, McCormick would need to win a national championship to improve upon his results.
Last year, the All-American sophomore was the runner up in the 10-meter platform event.
Even though Cameron Bradshaw will be competing in his first ever NCAA National Championship, he does have experience in big meets and Mark Bradshaw is confident in the junior.
“I know he can place pretty high if he just sticks to his game plan,” Mark Bradshaw said. “The good thing for Cameron is that this competition is really no different than the US Championships he competed in just a little more than a month ago.”
While there will not be any ASU swimmers at the meet, the Pac-10 will be well-represented as four conference teams are ranked in the top 10.
No. 1 Cal, No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 UA, No. 7 USC, will all represent the conference in swimming.
USC will also be a tough opponent for the Sun Devil dive team.
The Trojans won both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives when the two teams met on Nov. 13.
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
