March 25, 2006
ATLANTA – In front of a sold out crowd in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, sophomore Evan Stowers became the first Georgia Tech diver to earn All-America honors, finishing seventh on the platform with a score of 310.70 to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 33rd-place finish (12 pts.) at the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday night.
“I’m just really happy right now,” said Stowers. “This brings some notoriety to the Georgia Tech swimming and diving program. It’s an honor to be an All-American.”
“I knew that he had a lot of good dives in him,” said head diving coach John Ames. “After he missed that second dive in prelims, I wasn’t worried because he struggled with that dive all year and always made a nice comeback.
“He saved his best dives for the finals, and stood fourth heading into the final round, but just couldn’t pull off that final one. But he was great.”
Stowers, a native of Independence, Ky., is the second highest finisher Tech athlete at the NCAA Championships (Shilo Ayalon-4th-1650 free in 2003).
“I was pretty nervous about those first two dives,” said Stowers of missing his second round in prelims. “On this stage and seeing yourself on the TV across the pool, it got to me a little. But I settled down after that and was able to perform the way I normally can.”
Senior Sam Morgan was unable to earn his third All-America honor, finishing 25th in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:15.14.
The NCAA Championship meet had 10, 289 swim fans for all six sessions, one of the highest turnouts in NCAA history. Auburn captured its fourth consecutive national title with a final score of 480.5 points. Arizona finished second (440.5), Stanford third (362.5), Texas fourth (307) and Florida fifth (268.5).
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