March 10, 2010

COLUMBIA, Mo. - After bringing home two silver and three bronze medals from the conference championships two weeks ago, the Missouri men's and women's diving teams head back to College Station, Texas, for the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Championships.

Zone "D" is comprised of 12 states running down the central part of the United States, featuring some of the best divers in the country, vying for four spots to the NCAA Championships in West Lafayette, Indiana and Columbus, Ohio.

Greg DeStephen, Dante Jones, Dallas Becerra, Jordan Morcom, Sharon Finn, Christina Gailey and Abby Zepeda all made the cut by making a qualifying score in either the 1 and 3-meter springboards and platform, in a dual, triangle or championship meet this year.

On the men's side, Both DeStephen and Jones qualified for all three events, while Becerra qualified for both springboard competitions. Jones earned the first and last medal for the male divers, earning the bronze on the first day of the Big 12 championships and on the final day, while DeStephen finished the meet with silver on the last day of competition.

Each will look to make a return trip to the NCAA's for the first time in two years, as it'll be a homecoming of sorts for DeStephen, who is a Columbus native.

Gailey broke the school record in the Platform at the conference meet, finishing in second place in the platform competition, while Morcom took home the bronze in the 3-meter springboard the day before. The women will look to continue the streak of having at least one diver make the championships, following the departure of Kendra Melnychuk who made three-consecutive NCAA appearances.

The Championships will begin on Friday afternoon with the preliminaries of the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter springboard.