COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Seven LSU swimmers and divers are set to begin competition in the 2001 NCAA Championships on Thursday, here at the Student Rec Center on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
“We are all really excited about this weekend,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “These seven guys have done a great job for us all season, and I’m looking forward to watching them perform in this competition. Our main goal as a team this year is to return to the top 20. We finished 23rd in the nation last season, so we would like to top that by breaking into the top 20.”
LSU’s competitors in this weekend’s three-day NCAA championship meet are Matt Elder, Corey Fox, Steve Gluck, Ken “Buzz” Kuhn, Evan Martinec, Erik Petursson and Kyle VanArsdall. Each of the Tigers’ seven participants qualified for the season-ending competition by either equaling or surpassing the NCAA requirements in each of their respective events.
Martinec, Elder and VanArsdall will be making the first-NCAA appearances of their careers on Thursday, while Gluck, Kuhn and Petursson each competed in the 1999 championships at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Fox, the Tigers’ senior diver from Carson City, Nevada, is the most experienced member of the team in terms of NCAA Championship competitions, as he will be making his third-straight appearance in the post-season meet.
In 1999, Fox finished 13th in the 10-meter platform event as a sophomore and recorded a 20th-place finish in the 3-meter springboard competition.
Last season, he drastically improved in each of the diving events and compiled a sixth-place finish in the platform, a 12th-place finish in the 1-meter competition, and a 17th-place finish in the 3-meter event.
“Corey (Fox), Erik (Petursson) and Kyle (VanArsdall) have all been diving extremely well lately,” said LSU diving coach Scott Reich. “They are coming into this meet with a lot of momentum, and hopefully it will carry through this weekend. I look for Corey to improve some from last year, and he and Erik both have the ability to take home a title.”
At the Zone B Diving Regionals in Athens, Ga., Fox and Petursson earned automatic berths to the NCAA Championships by finishing second and third, respectively, in the platform competition. Fox ended with a total score of 548.20, while Petursson accumulated 517.05 points. VanArsdall, the Tigers’ talented sophomore diver, qualified for the NCAA’s in the 3-meter event with an 11th-place finish and a season-high score of 489.70.
Kuhn, the Tigers’ lone-senior swimmer taking part in this weekend’s event, will race in the 50-yard freestyle competition, while Gluck, LSU’s junior from Ontario, Canada, is scheduled to compete in the 100-yard breaststroke event.
The only Tiger swimmer competing in two-individual events is Martinec. He qualified for both the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke competitions. Martinec is the nation’s 21st-ranked collegiate swimmer in the 100-backstroke.
All three of these LSU swimmers, along with Elder will take part in the 200-yard medley relay competition. The Tigers earned the nation’s 12th-fastest time in the event this season.
The 2001 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships will begin on Thursday at noon in College Station, Texas, with the preliminary rounds of the 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, 400-yard medley relay and the 1-meter diving trials. The final rounds of each event are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.