MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –– Meghan Gerdes (Jr., Spring, Texas) became the third Navy diver to qualify for the NCAA Championship with her performance in the platform competition at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championship Wednesday in Morgantown, W.Va.  

"Today was a great way to end a tremendous three days for our program," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald.  "To be taking three divers to the NCAA Championship meets is a pretty big deal.  Everyone we took to the zone meet competed well.  Our younger divers received some great experience that will help them to compete better in the future."

Gerdes needed to finish among the top-five divers in today's event to advance to the NCAA Championship.  She was in 11th place through the preliminary round of five dives, but rose to fourth place at the end of the day with a total score of 457.40 points.  Her 246.85 points accrued during the five-dive finals ranked second in the field of 18 finalists.

Hannah Montau (So., Germantown, Md.) entered the last day of the three-day meet needing to finish among the top-12 divers in platform diving to advance to the NCAA Championship in the event.  This is due to her previously qualifying for the national meet with a fifth-place showing in Monday's one-meter competition.  Montau stood in fifth place after the opening five dives and remained in that position after the completion of her 10-dive list with 448.55 points.

Montau competed in the one meter and platform events at the 2019 NCAA Championship and Gerdes advanced to last year's national championship  on three meter and in platform.

Also entered into the men's platform event today was Jake Hedrick (Jr., Hummesltown, Pa.).  He placed 10th with a 12-dive score of 579.65.

The women's NCAA Championship will be contested March 19-21 in Athens, Ga., and the men's event will be held March 26-28 in Indianapolis, Ind.  Additional Mids who have qualified for the meets are Sydney Harrington (So., Fairfax, Va.) in both butterfly events and the 200 individual medley, Luke Johnson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) in the 500 and 1650 freestyle and 400 individual medley, and Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) in both springboard diving events.