Colorado State University Athletics
Monday, March 11
Flagstaff, AZ
All Day
Colorado State
at
NCAA Diving Zones
Di Scipio Zoned in on Experience
3/9/2024 10:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Sophomore to compete on 1-, 3-meter boards
– One outcome can change an entire outlook.
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Early in the season, sophomore diver Maggie Di Scipio told her sister she hoped by her senior season she could qualify for NCAA Zones, the meet she'll be diving at Monday and Tuesday in Flagstaff, Ariz.
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"When I was in Iowa, about to get it on 3-meter, before my last dive I knew I only needed 30 points to get it, and I was just kind of in a state of awe," Di Scipio said. "The day before I missed by 4 point on 1-meter, and on that day I knew it was attainable for me on 1-meter, but to get it on 3-meter wasn't even in my future prospects at all. When it happened, at first I thought it was a fluke. I called my dad and said, 'this doesn't feel right.' It wasn't until I saw the scores again I was OK, what I'm doing is working."
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The Zone E meet will be held March 11-13 at the Aquatic and Tennis Complex at Northern Arizona. Di Scipio qualified on the 1- and 3-meter springboards, which will be competed the first two days. Monday features the 1-meter, Tuesday the 3-meter; both begin at 11:30 a.m., and with 52 divers qualified in each field, the preliminaries are scheduled for 3 hours. The top 18 divers will advance to the finals, where the NCAA qualifiers will be determined.
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She walked on to the team last year and showed some early signs of improvement when the season began. At the Iowa Invitational, she really started to come into her own as a competitor, qualifying for Zones on the 3-meter board. Her 1-meter qualification came soon after and she shined at the Mountain West Championships, placing on all three boards and earning all-conference honors on 1-meter.
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Di Scipio is keeping her approach for the meet simple – gain experience and get a feel for the future. It is an important step.
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"It will help me in preparing for competition in upcoming years. I'm going to go against girls who dive for Stanford and USC, girls I have never gone against," she said. "It will help my competitive nature, but it's also good to watch people with higher level dives and try to apply it to your own skills."
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CSU diving coach Chris Bergere feels his pupil is in the right frame of mind for the meet, going into with no expectations other than to hold her own and get an up-close view of the top performers in the country.
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His first step was to make sure she was ready to head there mentally. Assured of that, he was impressed with why she was ready to compete.
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"I think it represents a standard where she's almost at the level of being considered a national-level diver. I think this meet will help her see where she needs to go," he said. "There will certainly be kids there who will go and score at nationals. She needs to see that more often. We see it a little bit in the Mountain West, but this is an entire region of the country. The experience will be good for her as long as she goes in with the mindset I want to compete. I don't expect her to win or qualify, but I do expect her to be respectable, show her abilities and that she can grow into that position."
Â
Which, with the season she had and these qualifications on her resume, has advanced the trajectory she previously set and will alter her training this summer as she remains to work with Bergere.
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"I think there a lot of dives in the offseason I either want to improve upon or learn," Di Scipio said. There are a lot of dives my coach and I have been talking about doing in the future that will just add to my caliber as a diver and increase my skill level for the upcoming years."
Â
She now ranks in the top 10 on all three boards at Colorado State, sitting sixth on all three. Her future came early, so her goal is to capitalize in the moment.
Â
Going to Zones, she knows she belongs. The awe no longer remains, replaced by a bolstered confidence and a retooled outlook.
Â
Â
Early in the season, sophomore diver Maggie Di Scipio told her sister she hoped by her senior season she could qualify for NCAA Zones, the meet she'll be diving at Monday and Tuesday in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Â
"When I was in Iowa, about to get it on 3-meter, before my last dive I knew I only needed 30 points to get it, and I was just kind of in a state of awe," Di Scipio said. "The day before I missed by 4 point on 1-meter, and on that day I knew it was attainable for me on 1-meter, but to get it on 3-meter wasn't even in my future prospects at all. When it happened, at first I thought it was a fluke. I called my dad and said, 'this doesn't feel right.' It wasn't until I saw the scores again I was OK, what I'm doing is working."
Â
The Zone E meet will be held March 11-13 at the Aquatic and Tennis Complex at Northern Arizona. Di Scipio qualified on the 1- and 3-meter springboards, which will be competed the first two days. Monday features the 1-meter, Tuesday the 3-meter; both begin at 11:30 a.m., and with 52 divers qualified in each field, the preliminaries are scheduled for 3 hours. The top 18 divers will advance to the finals, where the NCAA qualifiers will be determined.
Â
She walked on to the team last year and showed some early signs of improvement when the season began. At the Iowa Invitational, she really started to come into her own as a competitor, qualifying for Zones on the 3-meter board. Her 1-meter qualification came soon after and she shined at the Mountain West Championships, placing on all three boards and earning all-conference honors on 1-meter.
Â
Di Scipio is keeping her approach for the meet simple – gain experience and get a feel for the future. It is an important step.
Â
"It will help me in preparing for competition in upcoming years. I'm going to go against girls who dive for Stanford and USC, girls I have never gone against," she said. "It will help my competitive nature, but it's also good to watch people with higher level dives and try to apply it to your own skills."
Â
CSU diving coach Chris Bergere feels his pupil is in the right frame of mind for the meet, going into with no expectations other than to hold her own and get an up-close view of the top performers in the country.
Â
His first step was to make sure she was ready to head there mentally. Assured of that, he was impressed with why she was ready to compete.
Â
"I think it represents a standard where she's almost at the level of being considered a national-level diver. I think this meet will help her see where she needs to go," he said. "There will certainly be kids there who will go and score at nationals. She needs to see that more often. We see it a little bit in the Mountain West, but this is an entire region of the country. The experience will be good for her as long as she goes in with the mindset I want to compete. I don't expect her to win or qualify, but I do expect her to be respectable, show her abilities and that she can grow into that position."
Â
Which, with the season she had and these qualifications on her resume, has advanced the trajectory she previously set and will alter her training this summer as she remains to work with Bergere.
Â
Â
"I think there a lot of dives in the offseason I either want to improve upon or learn," Di Scipio said. There are a lot of dives my coach and I have been talking about doing in the future that will just add to my caliber as a diver and increase my skill level for the upcoming years."
Â
She now ranks in the top 10 on all three boards at Colorado State, sitting sixth on all three. Her future came early, so her goal is to capitalize in the moment.
Â
Going to Zones, she knows she belongs. The awe no longer remains, replaced by a bolstered confidence and a retooled outlook.
Â
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