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March 8, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia men’s and women’s divingteams, under the direction of 11th-year diving coach Dave Fafara, havethree individuals competing at the 2000 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’sZone B Qualifying Meet March 10-11 at the James E. Martin Aquatics Centeron the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. Third-year CourtneyColbert (Brown Deer, Wisc./Rufus King) and first-year Alison Sharp (Newton,Pa./Council Rock) represent the Virginia women’s diving program, whilesecond-year Joe Piorkowski (Easton, Pa./Easton Area) is UVa’s lone diver inthe men’s competition. Colbert and Piorkowski competed in the NCAA ZoneMeet last year as well.
All three divers will compete in the one and three-meter competitions. Theone-meter competition includes five voluntary dives and six optional divesfor men, while the women perform five optional dives along with the fivevoluntary dives. The three-meter competition consists of six optionaldives followed by five voluntary dives for both the men and women.Virginia’s divers will not compete in the platform diving. On Friday,Colbert and Sharp compete on the one-meter board, while Piorkowski competesin the men’s three-meter competition. On Saturday, the men’s three-meterand women’s one-meter competitions will be held.
Colbert finished seventh on the three-meter board (414.70) at the 2000Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and was eighth in the one-metercompetition (358.50 points) in February. This season, Colbert’s bestperformance on the one-meter board was in the semifinals of the ACCChampionships when she scored 372.45 points. At the Georgia Invitational,Colbert tallied a season-high 429.20 points on the three-meter board.
Sharp has had an excellent freshman season. She posted Virginia’s topperformances on the one-meter (10 dives) and three-meter boards (11 dives)with scores of 374.65 and 431.55 points, respectively. Sharp finishedsecond on the one-meter board at the 2000 ACC Championships with herseason-high score of 374.65 points. With her second-place finish, Sharpearned All-ACC honors. She also finished eighth in the three-metercompetition at ACCs with 404.15 points.
Piorkowski is the lone UVa men’s diver to compete in the NCAA Zone B meet.He is coming off a seventh-place finish on the one-meter board at the 2000ACC Championships (413.80 points). Piorkowski was also 10th in thethree-meter diving competition at ACCs (418.55). He was a finalist(seventh place) on the three-meter board at the 1999 ACC Championships. Heset his career bests last season with 459.23 points on the three-meterboard and 440.63 points on the one-meter board.
The top 12 finishers in men’s Zone B Meet advance to the NCAAChampionships, while the top nine women’s finishers at the Zone B meet moveon to the NCAA Championships.