FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The LSU swimming and diving team will compete at the 2002 Southeastern Conference Championships beginning Monday at the Arkansas Natatorium at Fayetteville, Ark.
The championships begins with preliminaries of the diving competition at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. Events include women’s one-meter diving and men’s three-meter diving with the finals of those events set for 6:30 p.m. Monday evening. The finals of the diving competition will be completed on Wednesday evening with the men’s and women’s platform.
The final day of competition will be on Saturday, Feb. 23 with events starting at 6:30 p.m. Events that day include men’s and women’s 1650-freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay for both men and women. The men will send two divers to Arkansas for the championships. Participating for LSU are junior Kyle Van Arsdall and junior team captain Jace Pitre.
Holly Winters, Barb Gorst, and All-American Jamie Watkins will compete for LSU on the women’s side. Watkins won the platform competition in last season’s SEC Championships at Tuscaloosa, Ala. She was named the 2001 SEC Female Diver of the Year as well. Watkins also placed third in both the one and three-meter events at the SEC’s a year ago. The Lady Tigers will be without All-American Michelle Coryell who is nursing a back injury.
“We are really looking forward to the competition this week”, said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “I think we have a good shot in a lot of events, but we just need to stay focused and be consistent all week long in a championship-environment.”
Other competitors of note for LSU this week are two-time All-American Mandy Leach, sophomore Stephanie Smith, All-American Steve Gluck, Ross Buffington and Francisco Paez. Smith has won at least two events in a meet six times this season for LSU. Buffington is the school’s all-time recordholder in the 1650-freestyle.
The Tigers finished sixth at the SEC Championships last season while the Lady Tigers finished seventh. The Lady Tigers look to have an SEC Champion for the third straight season. Ashley Culpepper was the SEC champion in the platform in 2000, and Watkins won the one-meter competition last season. LSU is looking for its first SEC Championship since 1988 when the women won the title.