March 10, 2015
Six H2Okies secure bids for NCAA Championships
Tech men take four automatic spots at Zone A qualifying

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Six divers from the Virginia Tech men’s and women’s diving teams received automatic bids to the NCAA Championships Tuesday at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships at the Alumnia Arena Natatorium. Kaylea Arnett, Kelli Stockton and Thomas Shinholser earned their second bid in as many days, and Mauro Castro-Silva, Kyle Butts and Logan Stevens earned their first automatic bids.

Tech’s men dominated the 3-meter event, earning four NCAA automatic qualifiers out of the seven possible. Shinholser took third after posting a score of 761.95 in the 12-dive competition. Mauro Castro-Silva finished fifth with a score of 700.05, Kyle Butts took sixth with a score of 695.70 and Logan Stevens earned seventh with a score of 689.75.

Castro-Silva, Butts and Stevens were just behind the automatic-qualifying mark in Monday’s 1-meter competition, but because they finished in the top-12, their automatic qualification in the 3-meter earns them at-large qualification in the 1-meter.

On the women’s side, Arnett followed up Monday’s seventh-place 3-meter finish by winning the 1-meter event with a score of 590.75 for 12 dives. Stockton, who won Monday’s 3-meter, was just behind Arnett in fourth with a score of 550.00.

Ashley Buchter took 19th in the finals, and Katie Bean took 27th. Emma Villarreal finished 45th.

Action continues Wednesday at 11 a.m. with the women’s platform. At 12:15 p.m., the men’s platform event will commence. In these events, for both the men and the women, top-seven finishers will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The event is free and open to the public.

Live results will be available here.

NCAA Qualifiers:

Kaylea Arnett - 3-meter (7th - automatic), 1-meter (1st - automatic)
Kelli Stockton - 3-meter (1st - automatic), 1-meter (4th - automatic)
Ashley Buchter - 3-meter (6th - automatic)

Thomas Shinholser - 1-meter (3rd - automatic), 3-meter (3rd - automatic)
Mauro Castro-Silva - 1-meter (7th - at-large), 3-meter (5th - automatic)
Kyle Butts - 1-meter (8th - at-large), 3-meter (6th - automatic)
Logan Stevens - 1-meter (6th - at-large), 3-meter (7th - automatic)

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