Colorado Springs, Colo. (Feb. 7, 2020) – For the second straight day, freshman Melissa Mirafuentes finished atop the podium and in the process eclipsed the school record in the 3-meter board at the Air Force Diving Invite on Friday.
 
Mirafuentes would leave her best for last in the finals of the Cup format against Emma Ruchala of Utah. In six dives, she would score a combined 365.55 to not only win the event but break the school mark. The previous best was held by former Cowgirl Stephanie Ortiz who had the record with a score of 354.05 which was set in 2010.
 
Mirafuentes finished the preliminaries with a first place score of 306.55 to advance to the quarterfinals. Sophomore McKenna Houlihan also advanced with a season-best mark of 261.25 to place 11^th. Redshirt junior Abigail Zoromski had a solid day with a score of 237.40 followed by freshman Makena Sanger with a career-best score of 197.00.
 
In the following quarterfinal round, Mirafuentes won the group C quarterfinal with a score of 302.95. Houlihan placed third in group B with a NCAA Zone E qualifying score of 280.30.
 
"Today was another great day for our team," head diving coach Ted Everett said. "The highlight was Melissa (Mirafuentes) winning the 3-meter event and in the process set a new school record. McKenna (Houlihan) made it to the quarterfinals for the second straight day and earned another Zone qualifying score. Abigail (Zoromski) and Makena (Sanger) were solid and should take some pride in what they accomplished."
 
The men had a solid day on the 1-meter board to begin its second day of competition. All three Cowboys advanced out of the preliminaries led by sophomore Brendan Byrnes. He placed seventh with a score of 277.30. Freshman Payton Lee was tenth with a career-best score of 275.45 while junior Elijah Chan was just shy of his season best with a mark of 269.30.  Results from the men's cup format finals will be available tomorrow.
 
"In the men's 1-meter, all three of our guys made it out of the prelims and to the quarterfinals," he added. "Brendan (Byrnes) would reach the semifinals performing some difficult new dives. I can't be more proud of the way the team is performing right now and the momentum we are building heading into the conference championships. I'm really excited to see how we perform on the platform event tomorrow."
 
In a different format from previous meets, all the competitors participated in the preliminaries of the event. That was cut down to the top 12 finishers with places 1-4 getting a bye from the next round. In the second round, places 5-12 competed in two groups with the top 2 advancing to the quarterfinals. In group C, places 1 and 4 plus the top 2 from group A competed with the top 2 moving on to the semifinals, while in group D, places 2 and 3 along with the top 2 from group B. For the semifinals, the top two from each group competed against each other with the final two divers facing off in the finals to determine a winner. This will be used during Thursday and Friday's competition, while the platform will be preliminaries and finals.
 
Both teams will close out the weekend tomorrow competing in the platform. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. MT in Colorado Springs.