BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UC San Diego's Luke Calkins and Tyler Runsten advanced past the Diving Pre-Qualification Meet Tuesday at the Birmingham CrossPlex and into the main draw of the NCAA Division II Championships, which begin Wednesday, Mar. 6.

The swimming and diving nationals are being held in conjunction with the NCAA Division II National Championships Festival, with five team titles set to be handed out this week in men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field, and wrestling.

Calkins, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., and Runsten, a Rocklin native, earned the right Tuesday to compete in preliminaries of both the one-meter and three-meter springboard diving events. Divers earning NCAA qualifying scores during the regular season are subject to the pre-meet pre-qualification competition at the site of the NCAA swimming and diving championships each year.

Runsten, the national runner-up on the three-meter board in 2011 and a two-time All-American, thus made his fourth consecutive NCAA field. Though Calkins has traveled to nationals in all three of his seasons as a Triton, this now marks his second straight qualification into the main draw.

Men's three-meter diving takes place on the first day of the NCAA Championships on Wednesday with trials at 11:30 a.m. PT and finals held during the evening finals session beginning at 3:30 p.m. PT. The one-meter event is at those same times on Friday, Mar. 8. All sessions can be watched live online, free of charge, at NCAA.com.

-- UCSDtritons.com --