March 10, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Freshman Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) placed fourth off the three-meter board at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships on Friday afternoon in the Ron O'Brien Diving Well in the Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. His Notre Dame teammate Sam Stoner (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso), a sophomore, placed 17th in the event. They will return to the pool tomorrow for the one-meter competition beginning at 11:00 a.m. (ET).

Bulfin, who garnered all-BIG EAST honors off the one-meter board by placing third at the conference meet last month, totaled 311.20 points in preliminaries to place ninth overall heading into the finals. He would go on to register 323.20 points from his six dives in the finals to have a grand total of 634.40 points on the day to place fourth. He will now have to wait and see throughout the final two days of the Zone Championships to see if he makes the cut for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, which are held March 23-25 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Stoner, an all-BIG EAST performer in this year's three-meter competition by finishing third, placed 13th after prelims on Friday with 287.95 points. He would add 254 points to his total in the afternoon to finish in 17th-place overall with 541.95 points. Stoner placed 28th off the three-meter board and 17th off the one-meter board at last year's Zone Championships.

Indiana University's Taylor Roberts and Ryan Fagan finished 1-2 off the three-meter board with respective totals of 677.35 and 671.45. Steven LoBue from Purdue was third with 653.30 points.

Saturday's action at the Zone C Diving Championships will feature the one-meter competition, while Sunday's final day will showcase platform diving. Preliminaries begin at 11:00 a.m. with the finals to immediately follow. To track the diving live, log onto ohiostatebuckeyes.com.