BATON ROUGE — Four members of the LSU diving corps will aim to qualify for their respective NCAA Championships when they compete at the Zone ‘D’ Diving Regional, beginning Friday at Texas A&M’s Student Rec Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas.
Sophomore Brian Gemberling and freshman Jesse Lyman will represent the men’s team at the regional, while freshmen Rebecca St. Germain and Elle Schmidt will make the trip on the women’s side.
A total of 64 divers (40 women and 24 men) from 18 universities have qualified for the meet and will dive for the chance to earn a bid to NCAA’s.
The prelims will begin each day at 11 a.m. (CST). Friday’s action will feature the women on the one-meter springboard and the men on the three-meter. The men and women will switch springboards on Saturday, and both will compete on the platform Sunday. Prelim scores will carry over to the final round in each competition.
Live results provided by DiveMeets.com can be accessed each day at www.LSUsports.net.
“There is some stiff competition at this regional, so the LSU Tigers will definitely have to bring their ‘A’ game,” LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “However, judging from what we’ve done this season and how we’ve trained, I’m optimistic that we will perform well and have some divers put themselves in position to qualify for NCAA’s.”
Gemberling hopes to continue an outstanding sophomore campaign in which he shattered the school record in the three-meter (393.07), emerged with program top-three marks in the one-meter (364.60) and platform (281.15) and was named SEC Male Diver of the Week on two occasions.
The Levittown, Pa., native also placed sixth in both springboards and 11th in the platform at the 2010 SEC Championships.
Lyman came on strong in the second half of the season and recorded the 10th-best one-meter score in school history, 327.23, against the University of New Orleans in January. He also posted top-16 finishes in all three events at SEC’s.
St. Germain, the conference’s Female Freshman Diver of the Year, recorded top-five all-time school marks in both the one-meter (310.95) and three-meter (326.03) this season and tallied the fourth-best platform mark in program annals (222.25). At SEC’s, the San Antonio product delivered a ninth-place finish in the three-meter and notched 12th in the platform.
Schmidt registered a top-16 finish in the women’s three-meter at the conference meet and will go into the regional with top scores of 265.50 and 292.20 in the one- and three-meter, respectively.
Eight men’s divers and 12 women will qualify for their respective NCAA meet from the Zone ‘D’ Regional.
Priority Placing from Zone Meets to NCAA Championships (8 men/12 women)
1. Winner of Platform
2. Winner of Three-meter
3. Winner of One-meter
4. Second-place Three-meter
5. Second-place One-meter
6. Third-place Three-meter
7. Third-place One-meter
8. Second-place Platform
9. Fourth-place Three-meter
10. Fourth-place One-meter
11. Fifth-place Three-meter
12. Third-place Platform
13. Fifth-place One-meter
14. Sixth-place Three-meter
15. Sixth-place One-meter
16. Fourth-place Platform
17. Seventh-place Three-meter
18. Seventh-place One-meter
19. Eighth-place Three-meter
20. Fifth-place Platform
21. Eighth-place One-meter
22. Ninth-place Three-meter
23. Ninth-place One-meter
24. Sixth-place Platform
25. 10th-place Three-meter
26. 10th-place One-meter
27. 11th-place Three-meter
28. Seventh-place Platform
29. 11th-place One-meter
30. 12th-place Three-meter
31. 12th-place One-meter