The two freshmen got the job done at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships.
In Northwestern swimming and diving’s final competition before the NCAA Championships, NU freshman divers Isabella Chen and Kyle Ly officially punched tickets to the big meet, joining 13 of their swimmer teammates.
Chen and Ly qualified for the NCAAs in the platform diving event based on their performances at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, which took place from Mar. 10-12 in Columbus, Ohio. Zones are the only way divers can make NCAAs, with five separate zone competitions taking place across the United States. Each zone event (one-meter, three-meter, platform) has a certain amount of automatic qualification spots decided based on how well divers in that zone fared at NCAAs in previous years for that event.
There were 11 automatic qualifying spots in the women’s platform diving event. Chen just made the cut, finishing 11th overall with a score of 462.65. Her score was just 5.3 points higher than Purdue’s Jenna Sonnenberg, the 12th-place finisher. Meanwhile, Ly finished ninth in the men’s platform event, scoring 695.75 points. He earned one of the 10 automatic qualifying spots in that event.
Chen also made the finals of the one and three-meter events, placing 15th and 18th respectively in each event. Meanwhile, Ly recorded a 24th-place finish in the one-meter and a 23rd-place finish in the three-meter.
Other Northwestern finalists at zones included sophomore Chloe Sharpe (15th in the women’s three-meter), sophomore Adam Cohen (18th place in the men’s one-meter, 14th place in the three-meter and platform) and freshman Nolan Rooker (15th place in the men’s platform).
Two days before Northwestern divers began competing at zones, freshman Josh Staples made noise swimming at the Bloomington Last Chance meet. There, he swam a time of 4:13.28 in the 500-yard freestyle, breaking Olympian alum Jordan Wilimovsky’s program record of 4:13.37. That time has him ranked 23rd in the nation and improves his personal best of 4:15.83 set at the Big Ten championships.
Josh Staples (4:13:28) broke the school record in the 500 Free this morning at the Last Chance Meet in Bloomington, Ind! He passes Jordan Wilimovsky’s time of 4:13:37 from 2017.
His record-breaking time ranks, as of today, 23rd in the country this year. pic.twitter.com/Yp7xCNMoDU
— Northwestern Swimming & Diving (@NUSwimDive) March 8, 2025
Full list of Northwestern swimmers and divers qualified for NCAAs:
Women:
- Lindsay Ervin: 50/100 freestyle
- Nikki Venema: 50/100/200 freestyle
- Relay-only swimmers: Audrey Yu, Amy Pan, Sydney Smith, Zoe Nordmann
Men:
- Stuart Seymour: 50/100 freestyle, 100 backstroke
- David Gerchik: 100/200 backstroke
- Josh Staples: 500/1650 free
- Tyler Lu: 200 individual medley
- Relay alternates: Cade Duncan, Connor Schuster, Diego Nosack
Northwestern will next compete at the NCAA Championships in Federal Way, Washington. The women race from Mar. 19 to 23, while the men race from Mar. 26 to 30.