Hawaii diver to compete at nationals

Aimee Harrison will become the first University of Hawaii freshman at the NCAA Diving Championships in six years when she takes the board today in Indianapolis.

Harrison qualified for all three diving disciplines by finishing fourth on the 1-meter springboard at last week’s NCAA Zone E Qualifying Meet. She competes on the 1 meter today, the 3 meter Friday and the platform Saturday.

The freshman from Winnipeg, Canada, enrolled at UH in January. She was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Diver of the Year earlier this month, after winning platform and taking second at 3 meters.

The next week she finished fourth at the Canadian Winter Nationals, just behind former Rainbow Wahine Emma Friesen, who was the last Hawaii freshman to go to nationals, in 2007. Friesen won an NCAA title the next year. QiongJie Huang captured Hawaii’s first NCAA diving championship in 2005.

Preliminaries begin at 5 a.m. Hawaii time each day, with the finals at 1 p.m. ESPN3.com will stream finals sessions Friday and Saturday. ESPNU will air a 90-minute recap Wednesday.