Mike Alderman led the way for the Nittany Lion diving teams with an eighth place finish in the finals of the one-meter on the first day of the Georgia Diving Invitational.
ATHENS, Ga.; January 3, 2007 - While the Penn State swimming teams are spending the next two weeks training in Naples, Fla., both Penn StateĄŻs menĄŻs and womenĄŻs diving teams opened competition at the Georgia Diving Invitational on Wednesday. Preliminaries and finals of the menĄŻs one-meter and the womenĄŻs three-meter springboard competitions were held on Wednesday. The Nittany Lions had one menĄŻs diver and two womenĄŻs divers advance to the finals.
On the menĄŻs side, Mike Alderman, who already owns NCAA Zone qualifying scores on both the one and three-meter board, scored a 291.45 in the preliminaries to place sixth. Josh Myers just missed out on making the finals as he finished in 15th place at 228.75. The top 12 in the prelims qualify for the finals. Pat Bukowski rounded out the Nittany Lions trio with a 205.25 to place 20th. Alderman, who scored a season-high on both the one and three-meter boards in his last competition at the dual meet vs. West Chester on December 2, then scored a 274.70 to finish eighth in the finals.
On the womenĄŻs side, both Courtney Adlam and Kimberlee Peifer finished in the top 12 in the prelims to qualify for the finals. Peifer led the way in the prelims at 265.80 for a fifth place finish while Adlam was eighth with 241.25. Jocelyn Avery also finished 24th for the Lions with 173.50. In the finals, Adlam finished ninth with 237.65 while Peifer was 12th with 217.30 points. Both Peifer and Adlam previously earned NCAA Zone qualifying scores as well earlier this year.
The meet will continue on Thursday with the menĄŻs three-meter and the womenĄŻs one-meter competition.
Finals MenĄŻs One-Meter 1. Steven Segerlin (Auburn) 343.90 2. Alex Volovetski (Pittsburgh) 331.85 3. Daniel Mazzaferro (Auburn) 297.80 4. Scott Morgan (Auburn) 291.75 5. Jeremy Stultz (Pittsburgh) 286.10 6. Webb Worthington (Georgia) 279.10 7. Genya Gouzeev (Georgia) 276.40 8. Mike Alderman (Penn State) 274.70 9. Kelly Marx (Auburn) 272.40 10. Caleb Dunnichay (Auburn) 250.35 11. Aaron Fleshner (Alabama) 250.30 12. Mike Muscari (Tennessee) 238.45 Total Divers in Prelims: 23 WomenĄŻs Three-Meter 1. Kelsey Patterson (Utah) 286.75 2. Corey Gerlach (Auburn) 281.45 3. Lauren Leroy (Tennessee) 272.10 4. Emily Hunter (Georgia) 260.25 5. Kate Hynes (Drexel) 254.60 6. Kristin Schild (SMU) 250.90 7. Emily Griesemer (Auburn) 247.00 8. Natalie Thomas (Georgia) 244.95 9. Courtney Adlam (Penn State) 237.85 10. Tien Tran (Iowa State) 237.65 11. Kali Fryklund (Iowa State) 218.55 12. Kimberlee Peifer (Penn State) 217.30 Total Divers in Prelims: 28
