Sophomore Matt Akers of the Cleveland State men's swimming & diving team qualified for the men's 1-meter final at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships at Purdue.
Akers finished 16th in the 1-meter prelims with 298.65 points to advance through the preliminary portion of the event. His score was the highest by any athlete that did not hail from a Power Five school and was over 50 points higher than his 1-meter prelims score from last year's NCAA Zones meet.
Akers' highest scoring dive was a reverse 2.5 somersault tuck that earned 58.50 points, one of three dives that tallied at least 54 points in his opening round.
Akers finished 18th in the 1-meter final at the Zone Championships, just seven spots away from earning an NCAA Championships berth. His final score, covering both prelims and finals, was 579.30 points.
After the collegiate season concluded, Akers' performance at the USA Diving National Qualifier sent him through to the USA Diving National Championships in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. He finished 21st in the 3-meter preliminaries and was fewer than eight points away from qualifying for the semifinal round of the national championship.