When three young Syracuse divers qualified for last weekend’s NCAA Zone Meet in Buffalo, they became the first men to represent SU at the meet in seven years.

The wait wasn’t exactly worth it.

About two dozen divers from around the northeast attended the meet, five of whom qualified for the NCAA Championships. Falling to more experienced athletes, none of Syracuse’s three divers made the NCAAs.

‘It’s a sport where you’ve got to pay your dues,’ diving coach Jeff Keck said. ‘It takes quite a while to learn how to compete and to get very consistent.’

Though Syracuse couldn’t send any divers to the NCAA meet, it exhibited more depth than some of its strongest competitors, who qualified just one or two men for the competition.

The Orangemen were one of the most promising squads at the meet. Junior Rick Rodriguez and freshmen Dwight Schultz and Tony Campagna will all return next year, meaning SU won’t have so long to wait before its next Zone meet.

Rodriguez, who is in his second year with the team, scored 197.1 and placed 20th out of 24 in the 1-meter event. He scored 300.9 in the 3-meter dive, placing him in last place.

‘Rick provided nice leadership all year,’ Keck said before the meet. ‘He’s a good team leader. Even though he’s not at the pinnacle as a diver, he’s been around the block.’

Syracuse’s first-year divers posted similar results to Rodriguez. Schultz led SU on the 3-meter board with a score of 330.9, placing 20th. He scored 192.45 in the 1-meter event, finishing slightly behind his teammates. Tony Campagna totaled 193.35 points on the 1-meter board and 317.3 on the 3-meter.

Many divers also competed in the platform event, a higher dive, but SU’s divers couldn’t participate because its pools aren’t equipped with the proper training apparatus. In fact, Syracuse divers would probably have to travel all the way to Buffalo just to practice their platform dives.

The Zone Meet, like most collegiate diving meets, is scored by the coaches rather than by independent judges. At the Zone Meet, seven coaches submit a score for each dive. To ensure fairness, the highest two and lowest two are cut and the average of the remaining three is the diver’s final score.

‘It works out pretty well,’ Keck said of the scoring system. ‘That’s not to say that everybody gets along all the time, but for the most part people do. Everybody has their moments, I guess. Except Syracuse — we’re always good (at judging).’

The top five finishers at the Zone Meet will compete in the NCAA Championships over the next two weeks. SU’s swimmers didn’t qualify for the NCAAs, so Syracuse won’t compete until the U.S. Nationals in April.

‘There aren’t too many kids doing dives that are more difficult than the dives our kids are doing,’ Keck said. ‘(The opposition’s) just doing them better right now.’

Published on March 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm