Khechfe can't advance past preliminary on day one of the NCAA Zone Championship

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Kansas diver Nadia Khechfe finished 40th in the three-meter springboard dive preliminary of Monday’s NCAA Zone D Diving Championship. Khechfe totaled 204.35 points on six dives at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia, Missouri.

Khechfe, who finished in the top-eight of Big 12s at the Big 12 Championship, went with the same dive list she did in the conference meet, save for one change. The junior added a second twist to the fourth dive on her list, which originally was a forward one-and-a-half somersault with one twist. Though competing at an end-of-season meet, Kansas diving coach Gabe Downey still believed the NCAA Zones were a good place to tinker with the Khechfe’s dive list, with an eye on preparing her for her upcoming senior season.

“It didn’t work as well as I had hoped but it’s definitely something we intend to use next year, so we wanted to see how it goes at this level of the meet,” said Downey. “I know she was a little concerned about (the change in routine), and this gives her a little feedback to use moving forward. The ones she felt good about, she did pretty well.”

Khechfe struggled with her unfamiliar dive, scoring 26.25 on her attempt. She rebounded by closing the preliminaries with her two highest-scored dives of the day, notching scores of 43.40 and 43.20 on her fifth and sixth dives of the competition. The top 18 divers from preliminaries moved on to the finals, meaning Khechfe did not qualify to continue her quest of making the NCAA finals in Indianapolis in the three-meter dive. She will conclude her participation in the Zone D Diving Championship on Tuesday with the one-meter dive.

“In the one-meter, she feels a lot more confident about her list,” said Downey. “None of those dives should present anxiety, so she’ll be able to go into it more confident.”

The women’s one-meter dive preliminary will begin on Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. Fans can catch a live stream of the day’s events on WatchESPN.

KUAthletics.com:  The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.