Oakland's Grant Advances to NCAA Championships

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Junior diver Tricia Grant made history Friday afternoon, becoming the first diver in Oakland Division I history and first-ever women's diver from the Horizon League to advance to the NCAA Championship with her fourth-place finish in the women's 3-meter diving at the NCAA Zone C Diving Qualifier, hosted by Ohio State University at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

"Tricia had a very cool head today; she was much more relaxed," Oakland diving coach Larry Albright said. "She just hit dive after dive today, and she competed like a top-level diver."

Grant scored an impressive 321.75 during the preliminary round, capped off with a 56.70 on her final dive of the rotation, an inward 2 1/2 somersault tuck. Her preliminary score was also 20 points in front of fifth place.

In the finals, Grant matched or improved her scores on five of her six dives from the prelims to tally a final score of 656.45. Her six-dive score of 334.70 in the finals was her third-best effort this season and less than 10 points off her Oakland record on the 3-meter board, which she set earlier this year.

Grant's 656.45 was almost 100 points better than her 15th-place effort last season at the 2013 NCAA Zone C Diving Qualifier.

Grant will now be able to compete in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events at the 2014 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by the University of Minnesota March 20-22; 1-meter diving is slated for Thursday, March 20, with the 3-meter event scheduled for Friday, March 21.

**Release courtesy of Oakland Athletics.