BATON ROUGE — For the third consecutive season, an LSU diver was named Southeastern Conference Freshman Diver of the Year as Rachel Ware received the women’s award in announcement made Monday by the league office.
Ware, a native of Richmond, Texas, reached championship finals in two of three events in helping the Lady Tiger women’s team to an overall runner-up finish at the SEC Championships this past weekend.
“Rachel was the standout freshman in all three events at SEC’s,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “She’s got a great amount of talent, and she has grown up tremendously this season. For her to raise her level of standards from high school to the SEC is just exceptional.”
Ware placed 10th in the 3-meter (267.10), eighth in the 1-meter (271.65) and sixth in the platform (226.60). She was one of three LSU divers who scored in the platform finals as the squad racked up 101.5 points in the three-day event to finish right behind SEC champion Kentucky.
Ware entered the meet after one of the most remarkable freshman dual-meet seasons in school history. The freshman led the Lady Tigers to an upset of Alabama on Nov. 10 with a sweep of both boards. In her first career event, she tied for first place in the 1-meter which happened to be at defending national champion and then-No. 1 Auburn on Oct. 6.
She also was the only freshman in the league to post scores in the SEC top 10 of all three events. On Jan. 20, Ware scored the eighth-best six-dive, 1-meter tally in school history in a runner-up finish at No. 5 Texas A&M (285.30). She recorded the third-highest 3-meter tally in school history with a victory against No. 10 Florida State on Jan. 12.
Ware’s honor comes one year after sophomore Nathan Schreiber won the award and two years after junior Niko Dalman captured the honor. Last season, LSU became the first school since freshmen awards were presented to claim back-to-back SEC Freshman Divers of the Year. Now, the Tigers have done it three years in a row.
“I’m honored and excited to be part of a program that can attract athletes the caliber we have at LSU,” said Shaffer. “It means we are doing a great job recruiting, and I look forward to sustaining that success.”
Ware and the LSU divers look to qualify for the NCAA Championships at the NCAA Zone B Diving Regional, March 2-4, in Athens, Ga.