ASU diving senior Hailey Casper, junior Hunter Atha, and freshmen David Hoffer and Mara Aiacoboae qualified for NCAA Championship berths with solid performances in their respective events at the Zone E Diving Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Following a solid outing at the Pac-12 Championships, Casper continued her dominance by winning the women's 3-meter dive. She competed in the 1-meter dive as well.
She placed fifth in the preliminary round with a total score of 322.20 on six dives.
However, she stepped it up and her six dives in the final round earned her a cumulative score of 672.30 for both events, good enough for first place. Her cumulative score was also about 20 points higher than the second place diver, Arizona's Samantha Pickens.
Casper also placed 14th in the 1-meter dive final with a total score of 541.25 over the preliminary and final rounds.
Hoffer, who won back-to-back Pac-12 Diver of the Month awards in December and January, continued his success while competing in all three events at the Zone E Championships.
In addition to placing 11th in the men's 1-meter dive final, Hoffer placed sixth in the final round of the 3-meter dive.
In the preliminary round, he amassed a 378.00 over six dives, which earned him fifth place out of 26 divers. He followed it up with another solid performance in the event final, totaling a score of 731.45 with his sixth-place finish.
Hoffer's performance in the 3-meter was also good enough for a berth in the event at the NCAA Championships.
ASU diving's other standout freshman, Aiacoboae, also competed in all three events.
Aiacoboae, a platform specialist, earned second place with her preliminary round score of 318.60. She kept second place in the event final with a final score of 649.10, which was about seven points less than the first place finisher and about 20 points more than the third place diver.
Her performance not only qualified her for the platform dive at the NCAA Championships, but also for the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.
She scored a 308.40 in the preliminary round of the 3-meter dive, which was good enough for eighth place out of 55 total divers. She notched a 10th-place finish in the event final.
Aiacoboae added to her top-10 finishes as she finished ninth in the 1-meter dive with a cumulative score of 558.70.
Atha earned a berth to the NCAA Championships with his performance in his best event, the platform dive.
The junior transfer scored a 344.55 in the preliminary round, putting him in fifth place. In the event final, he placed sixth with a cumulative score of 658.75, which was good enough for sixth place.
ASU's third freshman to advance to an event final during the three-day meet was Heikki Makikallio in the 3-meter.
After placing 13th in the preliminary round with a score of 327.00, Makikallio improved in the event final and ended up in 10th place, giving ASU two top-10 finishers in the event.
The women's NCAA Championships will take place from March 19-21 and the men's NCAA Championships are scheduled for March 26-28.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook or follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
