2025 Men's NCAA Diving Preview (Including Score Projection)

03/24/2025 12:45 PM

By Noah Duperre on SwimSwam

2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 26-29, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• SwimSwam Pick'Em Contest
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Psych Sheet

The most reliable and best way to predict how teams are going to place at any NCAA swimming and diving competition is to score out the psych sheets. However, this method excludes a very important piece of the puzzle: diving.

All divers must earn their way to the Division I NCAA Championships by way of the Zone Championships. Because there are no pre-qualified divers, everyone must qualify by placing high enough over their two consecutive competition lists at the meet. Using these qualifying scores throughout the nation, we can put together an unofficial diving 'psych sheet' of sorts. This list, combined with the swimming psych sheets, gives us a broader and more complete view of how the team race will likely pan out.

A quick disclaimer is needed here as a reminder that diving is a subjective sport, unlike swimming. Divers at different meets can't be definitely ranked over some at other meets like swimmers could with differing times. It's important to note that with five different Zone Championships happening concurrently around the nation, not all of these athletes were scored by the same panel of judges. These rankings, while not definitive, are an overall fairly accurate representation of the scoring contenders for this weekend's Championships.

MEN'S 1 METER

MEN'S 3 METER

MEN'S PLATFORM

SCORING OUT THE "PSYCH SHEET"

As expected, the Indiana men look to bring in a huge points haul this weekend in Federal Way. They are projected to have seven different A final appearances across all their divers and add a massive 113 points, which is vital for Indiana in their hopes to take home the team title. The most dominant performance across all the zone meets comes from the Hoosier, Carson Tyler on the three meter. He is ranked first with a massive margin of almost 70 points ahead of the next competitor. Diving can be unpredictable, so despite the dominant zone score, he is still not a lock for the title.

In terms of the team race, the other top swim teams are projected to score on the diving boards as well, though not nearly as much as the Hoosiers. The Texas Longhorns qualified four divers and are slated to add 15 points to their swimming total. While this is not as many points as they may be used to bringing in, it’s worth noting that they have divers ranked 17th on two events, just outside of scoring. So if those athletes can improve just a little bit, they’ll move into scoring position and the Longhorns can move into the 30 point scoring range or so.

The Gators project to bring in 16 points from their divers and the Cal Bears are expected to score just three points. Unlike the women’s meet, this team race is expected to be very close between many teams, so every point is crucial.

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