SAN DIEGO – San Diego State will send a contingent of six divers to the Riverside Collegiate Invitational, Dec. 19-20, in Los Angeles, California.
Making the short drive up the freeway for the Aztecs are Lucy Chavez, Isabella Gomez, Sophia Hineline, Keira Kuderka, Meja Palmer and Alina Skrocki.
SDSU will participate in all three events at Spieker Aquatics Center on the UCLA campus, starting with the preliminaries of the 3-meter springboard on Friday morning to be followed by 1-meter springboard action. In addition, the preliminaries and finals of the platform competition will be contested on Saturday.
Along with the Aztecs, the two-day meet will feature select divers from California Baptist, Fresno State and UCLA. This weekend’s competition was originally slated to be held at Riverside Aquatics Center on the campus of Riverside City College but was moved to UCLA.
SDSU divers have been idle since Nov. 22, when they traveled to the Grand Canyon State for the first installment of the Lumberjack Invitational in Flagstaff, Arizona. Returning to her hometown, Skrocki (279.15) was victorious in platform competition, while Gomez (275.80) was a close second, followed by Kuderka (225.35), who finished seventh, as all three student-athletes surpassed NCAA zone qualifying standards.
In the platform preliminary round, Skrocki posted a score of 291.05, which ranks third in program history, while Gomez’s finals tally was good for fifth on the school’s all-time charts.
Earlier in the meet, Gomez and Skrocki also eclipsed NCAA zone qualifying marks on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.
In the 1-meter event, Gomez (279.05) and Skrocki (267.30) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, while Palmer (232.85) was slotted 10th.
The same three divers also recorded top-10 performances in 3-meter action, with Gomez (315.35) placing third just ahead of Skrocki (309.25), while Palmer (260.45) took eighth, followed by Kuderka (253.15), who tied for the ninth position.
SDSU will be competing at the Riverside Collegiate Invitational for the third straight season, with Skrocki representing the lone returner from the meet’s 2024 edition. Last year, Skrocki placed second on the 3-meter board with a career-best score of 321.55, which ranks ninth in program history. She also advanced to the finals of the 1-meter (251.95) and platform events (210.45), finishing eighth and 10th, respectively.
Following a break for the holidays, the San Diego State swim and dive program returns to the competition pool for its home opener on Friday, Jan. 2, when the full squad convenes to welcome San Diego and Vanderbilt in a double dual meet at Aztec Aquaplex. First swim is set for 10 a.m. PT, and admission is free.