FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Five members of the LSU diving team competed at the 2002 Southeastern Conference Championships on Monday at the Arkansas Natatorium in Fayetteville.
Preliminaries and finals of the women’s one-meter and men’s three-meter diving competitions were held on Monday afternoon and evening. The top eight divers in each event advanced to the final round based on their individual score in the prelims.
Holly Winters, Barb Gorst and All-American Jamie Watkins each competed in the 1-meter diving competition for LSU, with Gorst advancing to the finals. Gorst scored a 257.90 in the preliminary round, and then notched a score of 271.60 in the final round. Watkins just missed making the finals, scoring a 248.40 in the preliminary round. Florida’s Kristen Conner made the cut just ahead of Watkins, qualifying for the finals with a score of 253.10 in the prelims.
Tennessee’s Jamie Sanger won the 1-meter with a 313.85 in the finals. On the men’s side, juniors Jace Pitre and Kyle Van Arsdall competed for LSU. Van Arsdall finished 16th in the preliminary round with a score of 435.50, and Pitre followed in 17th place with a 426.15. Tennessee freshman Phillip Jones won the event with a score of 596.25.
Preliminaries of the men’s 1-meter and women’s 3-meter competitions will be held on Tuesday beginning at 10:30 a.m. The finals will begin at 6:30 p.m. for those events. The same five athletes that competed for LSU on Monday will compete again on Tuesday. The diving portion of the championships will wrap up on Wednesday with men’s and women’s platform diving. Swimming events will begin on Wednesday at 10:15 a.m.
The championships will end on Saturday, Feb. 23 with finals at 6:30 p.m. The Lady Tigers finished seventh and the Tigers finished sixth at last season’s championships held at Tuscaloosa, Ala.