KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- N.C. State diving wrapped up the first day of competition at the USA Diving Winter National Championships and World Cup Trials Thursday. The men competed in the preliminaries of the one-meter event. The women took part in the three-meter preliminary.
Hudson Rains placed 10th with a score of 297.05 to qualify for the quarterfinals, while Ryan Smith took 23rd (272.35). The top 20 men advanced from the preliminaries.
Hannah Hopkins and Rachel Mumma competed for the women, but neither advanced to the quarterfinals.
Preliminaries for the women's one-meter springboard and the men's three-meter springboard begin today. Quarterfinals for the women's one-meter will be held Saturday. The quarterfinal for the men's three-meter springboard is Sunday.
Soccer America released its postseason awards Thursday with three Blue Devils receiving honors, including head coach Robbie Church earning National coach of the year accolades.
Church, who just completed his 11th season with the Blue Devils, guided Duke to a national championship game appearance.
Along with Church, sophomore Natasha Anasi was named to the Soccer America MVP first team, while rookie Kelly Cobb was selected to the All-Freshman first team.
Wake Forest's Katie Stengel, Aubrey Bledsoe and Kim Marshall were also selected. Stengel, a forward who led the ACC with 19 goals and 46 points this season, was selected to the MVP first team. Bledsoe, a goalkeeper, was selected to the second team. Marshall, a defender, was named to the all-freshman team.
Bledsoe, Marshall and Stengel helped Wake Forest to the best season in program history. The Demon Deacons reached the NCAA College Cup for the first time and finished the year with an 18-4-4 record.
N.C. State Junior righthander Chris Overman was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association of America third team preseason All-American team Thursday.
Overman went 6-3 with seven saves and a 2.30 ERA in 30 appearances out of the bullpenas a sophomore last season
Overman held opposing hitters to a .218 batting average. He did not allow an earned run in his last eight appearances of the season, covering 122/3 innings, and did not surrender a walk in his last 142/3 innings.
Following NCAA tournament runs in both men's and women's soccer, Duke moved up 24 spots and stands in sixth place in the latest Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings, released Thursday by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. The Cup is a measure of school's entire athletics department.
After picking up 60 points from its field hockey program in the initial standings, Duke gained 140 more points from the strong soccer showings. The women's soccer team advanced to the NCAA championship game before falling, 1-0, to Stanford. The men made it to the second round before losing to New Mexico.
Overall, Duke has 200 points and ranks second among private institutions behind only Stanford (260). Five Atlantic Coast Conference schools are ranked in the overall top 10: North Carolina (2nd), Maryland (3rd), Florida State (4th), Duke (6th) and Boston College (9th).
The next standings release date is Dec. 22.
Alexis Jones, who has signed to play women's basketball at Duke beginning next fall, is one of seven players named to the Naismith high school player of the year preseason watch list.
The 5-8 guard averaged 22.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 4.5 steals and 7.2 assists last season on her way to being named Texas player of the year.
