BY Gophersports.com,

Minnesota junior diver Cole Young (Overland Park, Kan.) led Minnesota on the first of three days of competition at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Young finished ninth on the 3-meter this afternoon while freshman Drew Brown (Centennial, Colo.) placed 11th. The top three finishers today were guaranteed berths in the NCAA Championships in two weeks in Federal Way, Wash.

Young improved from 14th place after the preliminaries to place ninth in the finals. After scoring a 289.35 in the prelims, Young responded with a 322.80 to place ninth with a 12-dive total of 612.15. He placed sixth among Big Ten participants and he finished one spot ahead of Big Ten 3-meter champion Landon Marzullo of Indiana.

Brown, returning from an injury that kept him out of the Big Ten Championships, started on fire, finishing fourth after the prelims with a score of 320.70, However, he fell to a 279.75 to finish 11th overall with a tally of 600.45.

"Drew had a great first list but he stumbled a little bit the second time through," head diving coach Jason Baumann said. "The dive of the meet was his reverse 2 1/2 pike that got seven-and-a-halfs and eights. I am really proud of him for coming back. Cole was a little nervous and left some things short on the first list but he was very consistent and came back nicely. He set himself up for a nice weekend."

Young and Brown will be back on the springboard tomorrow afternoon with the 1-meter competition. The platform event will be held on Sunday.

----------------------------------------------------------------------