Top-30 Finish For Young On Platform Caps NCAA Competition For Men's Diving Underclassman Duo

Thursday, March 22

Minneapolis, Minn.

All Day

Princeton University

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Top-30 Finish For Young On Platform Caps NCAA Competition For Men's Diving Underclassman Duo

March 22, 2018 | Men's Swimming and Diving

Freshman Colten Young saved his best for last at the 2018 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. The All-Ivy League diver finished a weekend-best 30th on the platform event Saturday with 299.15 points. Sophomore teammate Charlie Minns followed up with a 38th-place finish with 280.30 points, which wrapped up an exciting and experience-filled weekend for two key members of the Princeton program moving forward.

For the weekend, Young placed inside the Top 40 in all three events, and he moved upward throughout the weekend on his way to 30th on Saturday. Minns had a pair of Top-40 finishes of his own, including a weekend-best 37th in the 1-meter event Thursday.

DAY 2 RECAP
Princeton freshman Colten Young moved up three spots from his Thursday debut at the NCAA Championships, placing 36th in the 3-meter event at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Young, the 3-meter runner-up at the 2018 Ivy League Championships, scored 317.80 points in the preliminaries, while sophomore teammate Charlie Minns finished 44th with 300.55 points.

Young showed impressive consistency in his six-dive performance Friday afternoon, scoring at least 49.50 points on every dive and peaking at 57.40 on his fifth dive, a forward 3 1/2 somersault tuck. Minns had five strong dives, all ranging from 51.00-55.50, but one tough dive kept him from finishing inside the top 40.

The duo will cap their NCAA Championships Saturday in the platform event. Minns clinched his spot at the NCAA Championships by finishing second at the Zone A platform event with 707.30 points, while Young posted a B-cut on the platform after qualifying on the 3-meter board.

DAY 1 RECAP
Princeton divers Charlie Minns and Colten Young made their respective debuts at the 2018 NCAA Championships Thursday afternoon at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn. While neither diver qualified for the night finals, both have strong events still to come this weekend.

Minns finished 37th overall with 282.40 points; the Tiger sophomore was actually in position to finish inside the Top 30, but he struggled on his fifth dive and fell out of that range. Still, his performance was a good start, especially with the platform event still to come on Saturday. Minns clinched his spot at the NCAA Championships by finishing second at the Zone A platform event with 707.30 points. His B-cut scores in the other two events allowed him to dive both Thursday and Friday as well.

Young finished 39th overall with 271.05 points. The Princeton freshman showed impressive resolve after a couple tough dives early. He scored 145.25 points in his final three dives; doubling that total would have put Young close to the Top 30. He can carry that momentum into his strongest event, the 3-meter competition, on Friday. Young scored 392.50 points, the seventh-most in the history of the event at Ivies, and the second-most ever by a freshman at the Ivy League Championships. He followed with a score of 652.85 points at Zones, the fourth-best in the field, which was good enough for a trip to the NCAAs.

Like Minns, Young had B-cuts on the 1-meter and platform events, so he will dive all three days at NCAAs.