Cal men’s diver Geoff Vavitsas took third in the men’s 3-meter dive at the Ohio State Fall Invitational.
Five members of the California men’s and women’s diving teams had strong performances at the Ohio State Fall Invitational at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Over the course of three days, Cal had four divers advance to the finals in three events, with three individual divers earning top-3 finishes.
Sophomore Joshua Thai had a great weekend, improving his NCAA Zone qualifying marks in the 3-meter dive and platform dive. He opened the meet to advance to the finals in the 1-meter dive with a preliminary score of 317.95 before taking ninth in the finals with a score of 301.15. In the 3-meter dive, he took seventh with a season-best dive of 371.20—an improvement over his previous season high set during the Golden Bears’ dual meet against Pittsburgh in October. In his first platform dive of the season, Thai took third out of 20 divers with a career-best score of 357.20, an NCAA Zone qualifying mark.
Freshman Geoff Vavitsas also competed in three events. He opened the meet by taking 10th in the 1-meter dive, ending with a score of 293.30 in the finals. In the 3-meter dive, she took third out of 12 divers in the finals with a score of 379.00, improving her NCAA Zone qualifying mark. On the platform, she finished fourth, just five points behind Thai, who had an NCAA Zone qualifying score of 352.10.
Conrad Eck made his collegiate debut, diving in all three events. He scored 267.70 in the preliminaries of the 1-meter dive, 240.15 in the 3-meter dive prelims, and 290.45 in the finals of the platform dive.
On the women’s side, the Bears sent a pair of freshmen to the meet. Ariana Drake made her collegiate debut, competing in all three events. In the 3-meter dive, he took third out of 12 divers in the finals with a score of 291.50, an NCAA qualifying mark. He took sixth in the finals in the 1-meter dive with a score of 256.90. On stage, he finished fifth with a score of 213.50.
Caroline Li took fifth in the 3-meter dive with a score of 249.45. His score of 268.15 in the preliminary rounds is his second-best score in the event this season. In the 1-meter dive, he took fourth with a score of 266.45. In her first platform dive of the season, she took sixth with a score of 211.35.
The men’s and women’s teams will return to action this November 29–Dec. 2 when they travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Minnesota Invitational at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. This will be the last event of the fall for both teams.
