BATON ROUGE — All four LSU divers will look to earn berths to the 2009 NCAA Championships when they compete in the Zone ?B’ Championships, beginning Friday at 11 a.m. (CDT) in the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn.
The men’s team will send three divers to Knoxville as senior Niko Dalman and freshmen Matt Vieke and Brian Gemberling vie for the opportunity to go to the men’s national meet, which will be held March 26-28 in College Station, Texas. Freshman Katie Lybbert will represent the Lady Tigers and go after a spot in the women’s meet, which is held separately in College Station on March 19-21.
The Zone ?B’ meet is one of five diving competitions held across the country this weekend that will determine which divers advance to NCAA’s.
This particular meet will feature a large field on both the men’s and women’s sides with divers from 23 teams, including Southeastern Conference squads Auburn, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and host Tennessee. Ten women and 11 men from the ?B’ meet will qualify for their respective NCAA Championships.
“This is the competition that we have trained and prepared for all year long,” LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “I hope we can go in and trust the training that we’ve done all year long to prepare us for this meet and qualify as many Tigers as we can to the NCAA Championships.
“Without a doubt, this is one of the strongest zones in the country. This meet could very well have the highest number of athletes who qualify for NCAA’s, and it has the most depth of any field of competitors.”
Dalman, a two-time All-American, is hoping to receive the third invitation to NCAA’s of his career. A product of Auburn, Wash., Dalman holds both the one-meter and three-meter springboard records at LSU and placed in the top-10 of all three diving events at the SEC Championships last month.
In addition, the fifth-year senior possesses a pair of diving sets in the one- and three-meter with degrees of difficulty that rank among the highest in each field.
Vieke and Lybbert each tallied points for their respective teams in their first appearance at the conference meet last month. Vieke, a native of Indianapolis, Ind., captured top-16 finishes in both springboard events at SEC’s and boasts career highs of 316.42 and 350.50 in the one-meter and three-meter, respectively.
Lybbert secured 14th in her best event, the three-meter and brings in a top score of 289.12 on that board.
Gemberling, a native of Levittown, Pa., continued to improve throughout his first collegiate season and already ranks seventh in school history in the three-meter with his mark of 351.75, which he recorded against Delta State on Jan. 17.