Aztec Divers Prepare for NCAA Zone E Championships
Select San Diego State divers will be contending for automatic qualification to the national meet early this week when they compete in the NCAA Zone E Championships, March 9-11, in Flagstaff, Arizona.
SAN DIEGO – Select San Diego State divers will be contending for automatic qualification to the national meet early this week when they compete in the NCAA Zone E Championships, March 9-11, in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The Aztec trio of Isabella Gomez, Belen Cano and Alina Skrocki will participate in all three upcoming events at Wall Aquatic Center—the 1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard and platform—while Sophia Hineline (platform) and Meja Palmer (1-meter) will perform in single competitions.
The 2026 Zone E Championships commence on Monday with the 1-meter springboard, followed by 3-meter springboard action on Tuesday, and platform competition on Wednesday. Preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. PT each day, with the top 18 placers advancing to the finals.
For Zone E, divers that finish in the top six for the 1-meter final and the top seven for the 3-meter and platform finals will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, set for March 18-21 in Atlanta, Georgia. Individuals who earn an automatic qualification in one event and finish among the top 12 in another will secure NCAA qualification in that event as well.
Gomez, Cano and Skrocki garnered all-conference accolades in all three diving events at the Mountain West Championships last month, helping the Aztecs secure their fifth consecutive league title. The troika captured a gold medal in team diving competition at the MW Championships, the first year the event was held at the conference meet.
In addition, Gomez took home some hardware in three individual events, winning a gold in platform competition to go with a pair of bronze medals on the 1- and 3-meter boards. Her score of 306.30 from the platform tower ranks second in school history, while her marks of 311.45 in 1-meter action and 327.95 in 3-meter competition are both slotted seventh.
In addition, Cano logged fourth-place finishes in all three events at the conference meet, with her scores landing cracking the Aztecs’ all-time performance list, including the platform (4th, 292.75), 1-meter (8th, 308.45) and 3-meter (9th, 324.95).
Not to be outdone, Skrocki recorded the fifth-best mark from the platform height at the Lumberjack Invitational last November, posting a score of 291.05 of the preliminaries en route to a gold-medal finish.
Skrocki, who will be returning to her hometown of Flagstaff this week, took sixth in the platform event at the MW Championships to go with a pair of seventh-place results on the 1- and 3-meter springboards.
Meanwhile, Hineline captured the consolation finals of the platform event at the conference meet with a season-best 252.00 points.
Rounding out the Aztec contingent is Palmer, who set a season best on the 1-meter board with 280.13 points in SDSU’s triumph over San Diego on Jan. 23 to wrap the dual-meet schedule.
Northern Arizona will serve as host for the 2026 NCAA Zone E Championships. Along with the Lumberjacks, SDSU will compete against divers from Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, California, California Baptist, Colorado State, Denver, Fresno State, Grand Canyon, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Pepperdine, Stanford, UC Davis, UCLA, UNLV, USC, Utah and Wyoming.