COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The LSU swimming and diving team ended the 2001 NCAA Championships in 19th-place on Saturday, as the Tigers’ Corey Fox finished the 10-meter platform diving event in seventh place here at the Student Rec Center on the campus of Texas A&M University.
“This is a really good finish for us,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana.”I’m extremely pleased with the way that our seven guys performed this weekend, and in how we were able to reach our goal of breaking into the top 20. We have a very young team right now and we are only going to get better. It is definitely looking up for the future. I would like to finish in the top 15 next season.”
LSU’s 19th-place finish is four positions higher than the team’s 23rd-place finish at last season’s NCAA Championships and is the Tigers’ best finish since 1998. LSU recorded 39 total-team points and was just four points short of No. 18 Wisconsin. Texas won its second-straight NCAA national championship by accumulating 597.5 points, while Stanford finished in second place with 457.5 and Tennessee scored 330.5 to round out the top three.
“I would like to thank all of my coaches for the wonderful job that they did, not only here at the NCAA’s, but throughout the entire season,” Cavana said. “Scott (Reich), Lars (Jorgensen), and Heather (Johnston) all did terrific jobs this season, and there is no way that we could have finished 19th in the nation without their help. I would also like to commend all seven of the guys that competed here, because they all did outstanding jobs as well.”
Fox, the Tigers’ senior diver from Carson City, Nevada, finished seventh in the platform diving competition on Saturday in the final performance of his illustrious four-year career. With a final score of 529.85 in the event, Fox recorded his second top-ten finish of the 2001 NCAA Championships and earned his second-straight All-America honor. He ended in 10th place on Friday in the 3-meter springboard competition.
“We are definitely going to miss both Corey and Erik (Petursson),” said LSU head coach Scott Reich. “They were two of the most-talented divers that I have ever been privileged to coach, and they have meant a lot to both the LSU swimming team and the university. It was good to see Corey go out like a champion tonight and finish in the top 10 in his final competition.”
The LSU men’s swimming team concluded its 2000-01 season on Saturday, while the Tiger divers will next be in action on Friday, April 6, as they are scheduled to compete at the U.S. Senior Zones in Austin, Texas.