Kraus, Wilke To Dive At NCAA Region 1 Championships

Junior Gabrielle Kraus and freshman Matt Wilke will represent UW-Oshkosh at this weekend’s NCAA Division III Men’s & Women’s Region 1 Diving Championships in Chicago, Ill.

Competition begins Friday (March 2) and concludes Saturday (March 3) at the University of Chicago’s Myers-McLoraine Pool. A pair of sessions will be held each day, beginning with the women’s 3-meter category at 2 p.m. and the men’s 1-meter section at 6 p.m. on Friday. The women will dive off the 1-meter board at 12 p.m. and the men off the 3-meter plank at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Kraus and Wilke earned berths to this weekend’s regional after surpassing qualifying scores during the regular season.

Kraus is a regional qualifier for the third straight season. She will compete in just the 1-meter diving this weekend after participating in both events the past two years.

Kraus finished 13th among 18 participants in the 3- and 18th among 19 contestants in the 1-meter diving at last year’s regional in Grand Rapids, Mich. She placed 13th among 24 entrants in the 3- and 20th among 28 candidates in the 1-meter diving at the 2016 regional held in Granville, Ohio.

Wilke will compete in both the 1- and 3-meter diving during his initial regional appearance.

At the WIAC Championship held Feb. 15-17 in Brown Deer, Kraus finished fourth in the 1- and fifth in the 3-meter diving while Wilke placed second in the 1- and third in the 3-meter diving.

A total of 23 women and 27 men from 24 schools are scheduled to dive at this weekend's regional. In addition to Kraus and Wilke, the WIAC will also be represented by Dylan Glumac from UW-Eau Claire; Kayley Alioto, Caroline Holverson and Kyle Wolmutt from UW-La Crosse; and Jackie Braun, Owen Gluck and Evan Plummer from UW-Stevens Point.

Sarah Bradley from Calvin College (Mich.) returns as the defending regional champion off the women's 1-meter board. The top women's returnee off the 3-meter plank is UW-La Crosse's Alioto, a second-place finisher in 2017.

The top returnees in the men's division from a year ago are Albion College's (Mich.) Jacob Burris and Lake Forest College's (Ill.) Heath Ogawa. Burris placed second in the 1-meter competition and Ogawa fourth in the 3-meter grouping in 2017.

Three other diving regionals will be held this weekend as Region 2 is at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas; Region 3 at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., and Region 4 at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y.

Each regional will be given a fixed number of qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships that will be held March 21-24 at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. Regardless of the ratios, each region will have at least two qualifiers per diving category for the national championship. Last year, five women and nine men qualified to the NCAA Championships from the Region 1 meet.

2018 NCAA Division III Region 1 Diving Championships Website