Olivet College’s Sutton set to compete at the NCAA DIII Diving Regional

OLIVET, Mich. – Olivet College freshman diver Gavin Sutton has been selected to compete the NCAA Division III Diving Regional event this Friday and Saturday, February 25-26, at Calvin University in Grand Rapids.

To qualify for participation in a regional meet a diver must achieve the qualifying standard at least once at a bona fide conference championship or twice (on the same board) during at any other bona fide competition and submit appropriate documentation of qualifying performances to the diving coordinator. If a diver only qualifies on one board, they may still dive both events at the regional meet. The diving standards for Division III men are as follows:

• 1-meter (6-dive program) – 275 points
• 1-meter (11-dive program) – 425 points
• 3-meter (6-dive program) – 285 points
• 3-meter (11-dive program) – 440 points

Sutton scored 428 points on the 1-meter board last week at the 2022 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championship. He narrowly missed the standard on the 3-meter board, scoring 439.65 points.

Each regional meet has given a fixed number of qualifiers. This number will be determined by the number of divers eligible to compete in a given region who have also submitted all necessary information to compete in regional competition. At the end of the qualification period, all divers eligible to compete in a regional qualifier will be determined by the criteria listed above. The number of eligible divers at each region will be divided by the number of eligible divers at all regions and then multiplied by 24 for men and 29 for women to determine the ratio for the number of assigned qualification spots. Standard rounding principles will be used to transform ratios into whole numbers. Regardless of ratios, no region will have fewer than two male qualifiers and two female qualifiers. The diving regional at Calvin will feature 30 male competitors and 26 female competitors.

The qualifiers to the National Championships will be determined by first-place finishers from each board, using two of the allocated spots. If the same person finishes first on both boards, only one allocation will be used for that athlete. Next, second-place finishers from each board will be selected, using two of the allocated spots. If the same person finishes second on both boards, or one/both of the athletes have already been selected, only one or no allocations will be used. This will continue with each finishing spot (third, fourth, fifth, etc.) until all the allocated spots have been assigned for each region. If there is one allocation left and two divers who have not been selected are up for qualification, finishing in the same ranking on each board, the committee will use the diver's combined score made up of their one-meter and three-meter scores. The competitor who has the highest score will be invited to the meet, earning the final allocation.

The NCAA determined the Calvin diving regional has been allocated 10 male divers and nine female divers. The 2022 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships will take place March 16-19, at the IUPUI IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.