BATON ROUGE — While the LSU swimmers compete in the Nike Cup Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., the Tiger divers will participate in the Minnesota Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn. Nov. 21-23.
Diving events begin Friday afternoon at the Minnesota Aquatic Center with the preliminaries of the women’s 1-meter (event 9) and the men’s 3-meter (event 10). The finals for each event begin approximately at 6 p.m. Saturday’s schedule features the men’s 1-meter and the women’s 3-meter. Competition concludes Sunday afternoon with women’s and men’s platform diving.
Fifteen squads will make up this year’s field, including Florida Atlantic, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin. LSU will be one of three schools to only bring its diving team. Northwestern and Miami join the Tigers, while each respective institution’s swimming teams participate in other meets.
Six freshmen divers will have the opportunity to contribute this weekend. Adam Hebert and Andrew Keane join freshmen Andy Crum and Alex Donkervoet to comprise a young but talented men’s group. Jessica Wantz will lead the women, while freshmen Hali Saucier and Alyson Carlyon compete in their first exclusive diving invitational.
In 2002, the LSU men finished 12th in the event, while the women placed 14th. Former Tiger Kyle VanArsdall placed ninth in the semifinals of the 3-meter and finished seventh in the 1-meter. VanArsdall also competed in the finals of the platform competition, finishing sixth. Jessica Wantz competed in her first Minnesota Invitational in 2002, qualifying for the finals of the 3-meter competition. The Houston native finished seventh in the 3-meter and just missed placing in the finals of the 1-meter.
The meet will be the final competition of the fall season until LSU resumes its 2003-04 campaign beginning Jan. 3 at the Georgia Diving Invitational.