ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" A consistent performance by Navy's Joe Kaszubowski (Fr., Whitefish Bay, Wis.) propelled him to a fourth-place finish in the platform event at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championship Wednesday in Annapolis and a berth into the NCAA Championship.

The platform diving competition at the NCAA Championship will be held March 26 at Georgia Tech's McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. Kaszubowski will be joined at the national championship by teammate Tom Duvall (Sr., Durham, N.H.), who earlier on Wednesday was invited to compete in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle swimming events at the meet.

"I'm very excited," said Kaszubowski about qualifying for the NCAA Championship. "This was not expected, but I am excited to be participating and having the chance to go against the top divers in the country. I'm very happy."

Kaszubowski, the 2016 Patriot League Men's Diver of the Year, entered the finals in sixth place after six dives with 316.80 points. Virginia's Carl Buergler was just ahead of Kaszubowski in fifth place with 317.45 points, and Columbia's Jayden Pantel stood fourth with 329.45 points. Kaszubowski scored at least 50 points on each of his last four dives in the six-dive final to move into fourth place with a 12-dive total of 627.10 points and edge Buergler by 5.95 points for the last qualifying spot at the NCAA Championship.

"After his second dive," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald, "I reminded him to put everything he has into these last couple of dives, and he did just that."

"I was focusing a little more (on the dives) and not on being tired," said Kaszubowski on the success of his last six dives. "That was what was holding me down during the prelims and in the early finals. I haven't dealt with platform diving too much. I was just trying to focus on the more important things.

"I had to nail it (thoughts heading into his last dive, a back one-and-a-half, two-and-a-half twister). It was good enough to get me in, so I was excited."

In addition to his efforts Wednesday in the platform competition, Kaszubowski also placed 13th (569.70) on the one-meter board and 37th on the three meter (233.15).

"The first day (three meter) was pretty rough," said Kaszubowski. "I was a little nervous. It didn't turn out as well as I thought it would, but after that first day I calmed down and realized what was happening and it started to get a little smoother."

"Joe just built throughout the week, as you can see by his scores," said MacDonald. "The three meter on the first day he didn't make finals. He did make finals on the one meter on day two and moved up a bit from prelims to finals, and then today had a great meet."

Also advancing to the finals on Tuesday's one-meter board was Navy's Nate Belch (So., Tucson, Ariz.). The 2015 league diver of the year scored 532.65 points to place 18th on the board after he had scored 251.90 points to finish in 31st place in Monday's three-meter competition.

Navy's Frank Love (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) and Julie Jesse (Sr., Edwardsburg, Mich.) closed out their respective careers by competing at the meet. Love placed 41st in both springboard competitions (223.40 on the one meter, 212.55 points on the three meter), while Jesse, who was this year's Patriot League Women's Diver of the Year, placed 23rd on the three meter (235.75) and 27th on the one meter (231.35).

"It was an up-and-down week for our divers," said MacDonald. "We had some really good things go on, and some things we may want to forget about. Julie competed the way she has each of the three years I coached her. She didn't miss a dive, she was fantastic. I was really proud of that. This was Frank's first zone meet and I think he did pretty well with it. He had some ups-and-downs, but it was a great learning experience for both him and Nate. They both had about the same meet."

Kaszubowski becomes the 10th Navy men's diver (since 1942) to qualify for the NCAA Championship as a freshman â€"â€" and the 20th diver to qualify for at least one national championship meet â€"â€" but the first freshman to do so since Kevin Teague in 2004.

"It is awesome," said McDonald and Kaszubowski going to the NCAA Championship as a freshman. "I'm going to tell him we are going there to have some fun, look around and get some experience for this meet. If we can get anything else out of it, that's a bonus. But we also don't want to waste the opportunity he has ahead of himself.

"The competition this week was incredible. It was one of the best Zone A Championships I have been a part of."

NCAA Championship Qualifiers from Zone A
Women's One-Meter
Olivia Lehman, James Madison; Addison Walkowiak, Rutgers; Alyssa Black, Rutgers; Meme Sharp, Pittsburgh; Rebecca Corbett, Virginia

Women's Three-Meter
Addison Walkowiak, Rutgers; Ashlynn Peters, Virginia Tech; Meme Sharp, Pittsburgh; Rebecca Corbett, Virginia; Alyssa Black, Rutgers; Alexandra Butera, Connecticut

Women's Platform
Jing Leung, Harvard; Addison Walkowiak, Rutgers; Kylie Towbin, Virginia; Corey Johnson, Virginia; Leah Piemonte, Virginia Tech; Rebecca Corbett, Virginia

Men's One-Meter
Hector Garcia Boissier, Penn State; Dominic Giordano, Pittsburgh; Benjamin Schiesl, Virginia Tech; Logan Knauss, Penn State

Men's Three-Meter
Hector Garcia Boissier, Penn State; John Crow, Penn State; Mauro Silva, Virginia Tech; Eduardo Castro, Virginia Tech; Benjamin Schiesl, Virginia Tech

Men's Platform
Logan Stevens, Virginia Tech; Dominic Giordano, Pittsburgh; Jayden Pantel, Columbia; Joe Kaszubowski, Navy

Navy Results
Women's One Meter
Julie Jesse â€" 27th place â€" 231.35 points
Women's Three Meter
Julie Jesse â€" 23rd place â€" 235.75
Men's One Meter
Joe Kaszubowski â€" 13th place â€" 569.70
Nate Belch â€" 18th place â€" 532.65
Frank Love â€" 41st place â€" 223.40
Men's Three Meter
Nate Belch â€" 31st place â€" 251.90
Joe Kaszubowski â€" 37th place â€" 233.15
Frank Love â€" 41st place â€" 212.55
Men's Platform
Joe Kaszubowski â€" 4th place â€" 627.10