BATON ROUGE — LSU diver Rebecca St. Germain was honored as the Southeastern Conference Female Freshman Diver of the Year, the league announced following the 2010 SEC Championships Saturday.
“It’s a tremendous honor for Becca to receive the SEC Freshman Diver of the Year award,” LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “Becca has had an excellent year and has established herself as a standout in the elite SEC field of divers.
“What is truly inspiring about her accomplishments is that mid-year she had to have elbow surgery to remove a piece of floating cartilage, but this adversity never caused her to miss a beat. I’m proud of what Becca has accomplished and look forward to seeing her qualify for her first NCAA Championships at the Zone Regional in March.”
St. Germain emerged as one of the Lady Tigers’ top newcomers this season despite missing a portion of the season due to injury. The San Antonio, Texas, native claimed seven dual-meet victories in 10 competitions and registered the fifth-best one- and three-meter diving scores in school history with her top marks of 310.95 and 326.03, respectively.
She was also recognized by the conference on three occasions throughout the regular season. After sweeping the boards against Tulane, she was named SEC Female Diver of the Week and earned Freshman of the Week honors twice following her efforts versus nationally-ranked squads Tennessee and Texas A&M.
At the SEC Championships this week, St. Germain posted a ninth-place finish in the three-meter and finished 12th in the platform with the fourth-best mark in program history, 222.25.
St. Germain is the fifth men’s or women’s diver to earn SEC Freshman Diver of the Year honors under Shaffer’s tutelage in the past six years.
She will attempt to qualify for NCAA’s at the Zone Diving Regional, March 12-14.