Fall diving concludes with three divers placing in final invitational
Torie Mosley | Staff Writer
The North Texas diving team finished its final fall meet this weekend with a three-day competition at the Texas Diving Invitational in Austin.
The Mean Green competed against its toughest competition all season long at the invite. The University of Texas at Austin squad hosted the event against North Texas, the University of Houston, Arizona State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of California atBerkeley, Colorado State University and Texas Christian University.
Senior Jasmine Abercrombie led the Mean Green in scoring, placing 17th in the 10-meter platform event with a score of 166.75. Junior Samantha Scheck finished right behind Abercrombie in the standings in 18th place with a score of 158.30, and sophomore Cecilia Hernandez placed 22nd with a score of 142.95.
“[North Texas] did pretty good this weekend,” diving coach Mark Murdock said. “There’s usually seven panel judges at invitational meets, so the judging’s more strict. But we stayed consistent and have a lot to work on in the future.”
Although Murdock felt proud to see the diving squad fight against tough competition, he said bringing the North Texas divers to the Texas Invitational shows the team what next level competition with top caliber athletes looks like.
Leading the team in scoring, Abercrombie has anchored the Mean Green all fall. The Houston native was named the Conference USA Diver of the Week last month and finished in the top three in a home dual meet against Liberty University and Incarnate Word before recording her best score of 245.93 at Texas A&M in October.
Hernandez also had a positive showing this weekend. Her 142.95 score earned her 22nd place amongst other top divers and also topped her Conference USA platform performance last spring by 30 points.
The Texas Invitational was the first time North Texas competed on the platform boards all season. As the winter training begins for the Mean Green, Murdock wants to make sure the team continues to improve in the platform events for the spring season.
“We’ve been working on things other than platform this season, so for the winter workouts we’re going to practice on nothing but platform,” Murdock said. “We’re going to work on the team understanding the mechanics to diving and progressing in areas they need to improve in.”
With the fall season in the books for the Mean Green, the squad has almost two months to prepare for its next contest. North Texas will ring in the new year when it travels to Little Rock, Arkansas in January to compete against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Southern Illinois.
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