INDIANAPOLIS – Tufts University junior diver
Jay Wilkinson earned honorable mention All-American honors with a 13th-place finish in three-meter diving as the NCAA Division III Men's Swimming & Diving Championships got started on Wednesday.
Wilkinson advanced into the consolation final as the last qualifier with a 450.50 score that placed 16th in the opening round of three-meter diving. He then improved his marks to a 461.30 total in the final for 13th place. It's Tufts' best three-meter diving finish since Matt Rohrer was eighth in the event at the 2017 NCAA meet. Wilkinson earns the second honorable mention All-American award of his career.
The 13th-place finish by Wilkinson scored four team points for the Jumbos, which places the team in a tie for 28th place after one day and five events at the national competition.
In the 500 freestyle preliminaries today, junior
Rafae Shafi just missed reaching the consolation finals (places 9th through 16th). He swam a 4:28.55 mark that was 18th in the event, eight spots higher than his seeding (26th). Shafi was just 0.27 out of the 16th position (4:28.28). Sophomore
Ron Lyubman was also in the event for the Jumbos, timing 4:44.47 for 35th place.
The Jumbos also just missed the consolation final in the 400 medley relay, which finished the swimming preliminaries on Wednesday morning. Freshman
Nico Ogawa, junior
Will Kaminski, sophomore
Max Gerke and senior
Armaan Sikka combined on a 3:17.93 time that was 18th. They were just 0.40 short of the consolation final.
Tufts also had a pair of qualifiers in the 50 freestyle today. Kaminski was 41st in the preliminaries at 20.57 seconds, and Sikka swam 20.62 for 42nd place.
The Jumbos have entries in the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and the 200 freestyle relay on Thursday at the NCAA Championships being held at the IU Natatorium.
--JUMBOS--
