INDIANAPOLIS, IN - The NCAA has announced the list of participants for the 2026 NCAA Division III Diving Regional events, with nine student-athletes from the North Coast Athletic Conference qualifying to compete in one of the four regional competitions across the country. Divers from Denison and Kenyon will be competing at the Region I event in both the men’s and women’s competitions on Friday-Saturday, February 27-28, at Kalamazoo College’s Natatorium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
 
On the women's side, Denison will be represented by senior Lu-Si Minnich (Indianapolis, IN/Lawrence Central), while Kenyon will be represented by junior Lucy Cassell-Kelly (Ann Arbor, MI/Community) and sophomore Nadia Milovich (Westlake, OH/Westlake).
 
For the men, the NCAC will be represented by Big Red seniors Nick Fogle (Corcoran, MN/Providence Academy) and Brendan Stanley (Fort Collins, CO/Fort Collins) and sophomores Colton Butchko (Silver Spring, MD/Einstein) and Seamus McCann (Silver Spring, MD/ Bethesda Chevy Chase) along with Owl sophomore James Lackner (La Grange, KY/Oldham County) and first-year Chase Smith (West Bloomfield, MI/West Bloomfield).
 
To qualify for participation in the regional diving meets, a diver must achieve the qualifying standard at least twice on the same board during the qualification period. More specifically, the two qualifying scores on the same board (i.e., 1-meter or 3-meter) must be achieved on two different dates of competition (one of which may be a conference championship) during the qualification period.
 
Each regional meet will be given a fixed number of qualifiers. This number will be determined by the number of divers eligible to compete in a given region who have also submitted all necessary information to compete in regional competition. At the end of the qualification period, all divers eligible to compete in a regional qualifier will be determined by the criteria listed above. The number of eligible divers at each region will be divided by the number of eligible divers at all regions and then multiplied by 24 for men and 29 for women to determine the ratio for the number of assigned qualification spots. Regardless of ratios, no region will have less than two qualifiers.
 
The qualifiers to the National Championships will be determined by first-place finishers from each board, using two of the allocated spots. If the same person finishes first on both boards, only one allocation will be used for that diver. Next, second-place finishers from each board will be selected, using two of the allocated spots. If the same person finishes second on both boards, or one/both of the athletes have already been selected, only one or no allocations will be used. This will continue with each finishing spot (third, fourth, fifth, etc.) until all the allocated spots have been assigned for each region. If there is one allocation left and two divers who have not been selected are up for qualification, finishing in the same ranking on each board, the committee will use the diver's combined score made up of their one-meter and three-meter scores. The competitor who has the highest score will be invited to the meet, earning the final allocation.
 
The 2026 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships will be held over a four-day period, March 18-21, at the IU Natatorium on the campus of IU Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana.