Sophomore Michael Bulfin has his sights set on a return trip to the NCAA Championships.

Bulfin And Stoner Both Place In Top-10 Off One-Meter Board At Zone Championships

March 11, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Notre Dame divers Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and Sam Stoner (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) both placed in the top-10 off the one-meter board during the second day of competition at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships on Saturday afternoon in the Ron O’Brien Diving Well in the Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Bulfin, a freshman, placed ninth while the sophomore Stoner was 10th. The meet will conclude with the platform competition on Sunday, however neither Bulfin or Stoner will participate in that event.

Bulfin, who garnered all-BIG EAST honors off the one-meter board by placing third at the conference meet last month, finished the preliminary round on Saturday in eighth-place by totaling 280.45 points for his six dives. He posted 283.25 points in the finals to finish ninth overall with 563.70 points.

The freshman placed fourth off the three-meter board on Friday and will have to wait and see how tomorrow’s platform competition unfolds to see if he makes the cut for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, which are held March 23-25 in Atlanta, Georgia. The fourth-place finish tied the program record for the best-ever finish at the Zone Championships off of any board and set the mark for the three-meter. Andy Maggio (2000-03) placed fourth in the one-meter competition in 2002.

Stoner, an all-BIG EAST performer in this year’s three-meter competition by finishing third, was 11th after the morning prelims with 276.25 points. The sophomore would move up in the finals with 274.90 points to bring his total to 551.15. Stoner, who placed 28th off the three-meter board and 17th off the one-meter board at last year’s Zone Championships, was 17th in the three-meter competition on Friday.

Purdue’s Steve LoBue took first off the one-meter board with a grand total of 693.20 points.

Preliminaries of Sunday’s platform competition begin at 11:00 a.m. with the finals to immediately follow. To track the diving live, log onto ohiostatebuckeyes.com.

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