LEXINGTON, Ky. — Five months of tough dual-meet competition has led the LSU diving team to its championship season, which begins Friday as the 2007 Southeastern Conference Diving Championships get underway at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on the University of Kentucky campus.
The three-day event begins with the men’s 1-meter springboard at 10 a.m. CT, followed by the women’s 3-meter springboard at 1:30 p.m. CT. A finals’ session featuring both events is slated to conclude Friday’s schedule at 5 p.m. CT.
Women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter are scheduled for Saturday, and platform wraps up the meet on Sunday.
Diving coach Doug Shaffer is sending three women’s divers and three men’s divers to the event, and all six of the athletes have prepared extremely well for the conference’s premier event.
“Where we are competitively and the performances that we have posted building toward this are on the right track,” said Shaffer. “I am optimistic that we are going to have a really good representation at the SEC Championships.”
Headlining the group is senior Hali Saucier. Saucier was named SEC Female Diver of the Week after sweeping both boards in the Lady Tigers’ quad-meet victory over Houston, Rice and New Orleans last weekend at the LSU Natatorium.
Saucier bested her own school record in the 3-meter by .15 points with a mark of 340.50. That score registered as the fourth-best tally in the SEC this season. The Gig Harbor, Wash., native ranks second in the league in 1-meter (321.37) and is tops in the SEC in platform competition after posting a score of 294.30 in a win at the Art Adamson Invitational.
“Hali has improved every single year she has been here,” said Shaffer. “Sometimes results don’t always necessarily show that. She’s had a fantastic career and a fantastic dual-meet season this year.”
Saucier, who has won 16 of the 20 events she has participated in, was LSU’s highest finisher in all three diving events at last year’s SEC meet.
Meanwhile, senior Andrew Keane holds the fourth-highest SEC platform score on the men’s side this season (280.60). Shaffer said the team’s success in platform can be contributed to the dedication and practice each of the athletes has put into the event.
“We fit it in around springboard and we focus on it,” said Shaffer. “We put a lot of effort into it. It’s high and it takes its toll on the body, but divers are three-event divers.”
Sophomore Nathan Schreiber, the 2005-06 SEC Freshman Diver of the Year, was one of the few freshmen in the league to qualify for two finals at last year’s meet in Knoxville, Tenn.
Schreiber has improved in 3-meter competition and brings the league’s seventh-best 1-meter tally into the meet (323.20). That score, which was recorded at the Georgia Tech Invitational, ranks as the seventh-highest mark in school history.
Despite the absence of All-American Niko Dalman, who is receiving a medical redshirt due to an injury, LSU’s efforts to score could also come from freshman Kalister Harmon.
LSU’s depth on the women’s team extends to highly-touted freshman Rachel Ware and junior Paige Brown. Ware, a candidate for SEC Freshman Diver of the Year, ranks 10th in the SEC in the 3-meter (323.63) and 10th in the 1-meter (285.30). Brown is right behind Saucier in the conference with the second-best platform score in the SEC.
“If Rachel doesn’t put too much pressure on herself and just goes out and has fun, she can be a contender in all of the events,” said Shaffer. “She is learning how to compete more and more this season.”
2007 SEC Diving Championships
UK Lancaster Aquatic Center
Lexington, Ky.
Friday’s Schedule of Events (all times Central)
10 a.m. Men’s 1-meter prelims
1:30 p.m. Women’s 3-meter prelims
5 p.m. Men’s 1-meter finals
6 p.m. Women’s 3-meter finals