BATON ROUGE — The LSU Diving team will kick off the new year by heading to Athens, Georgia on Tuesday for the three day Georgia Diving Invitational.
“We are excited to attend the Georgia Diving Invitational,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “Coming off the holiday break it is good for us to compete again and refocus toward the championship segment of our season.”
The seven person diving team will return to competition after participating at the USA Diving Winter Championship in Knoxville, Tenn. in the middle of December.
Aside from Georgia, the field will consist of divers from Auburn, Southern Methodist University, Iowa State, Kentucky, Drexel, Florida, Virginia, Penn State, Tennessee and Virginia.
“This will be our last platform competition and our last championship format competition prior to the SEC Championships,” Shaffer said. “Georgia runs a first class meet. I expect the Tiger divers to compete hard in a good field of competition.”
Freshman Alex Bettridge is entering the meet after an impressive preliminary fifth place finish in the one-meter (238.65) and a ninth place finish on the three-meter (248.90). Thus far this season, Bettridge has already qualified for Zone Championships in the one-meter, three-meter and platform springboard. Her sensational rookie campaign witnessed a season high three-meter mark of 318.00 against Tulane, one-meter score of 275.33 against Florida State and a total of 229.55 on the platform at the Tennessee Invitational.
Sophomore Elle Schmidt has battled Bettridge for program supremacy and has a top three-meter score of 280.05 against the Seminoles, high three-meter mark of 258.60 against Florida and a platform high of 221.95 at the Tennessee Invitational.
On the men’s side, senior Matt Vieke leads the program this season on the one-meter dive with a score of 330.45 in a meet against Auburn. In last season’s Zone Diving Regionals, Vieke was the Tigers top performer in all three diving events.
Sophomore Daniel Helm boasts a one-meter high of 321.60. He also owns the second highest three-meter mark for the season for LSU (373.50). The Beaverton, Ore. native excelled on the platform dive with a mark of 334.45 in a third place finish at the Tennessee Invitational.
Fellow Sophomore Kevin Leong, in his first season of competition for the Tigers, is second in the program on the one-meter (328.80), first on the three-meter (374.25) and second on the platform (294.85).
Sophomore Sean McKinney has added to the depth of the squad with season highs against Alabama in both the one-meter (307.13) and the three-meter (338.55).
Preliminary events will begin at 10 a.m. (CT) with the championship rounds beginning at 5 p.m. (CT). More information and results can be found on DiveMeets.com.
For more information to the LSU Swimming and Diving program please visit LSUsports.net, follow us on Twitter @LSUswimdive or ‘like’ LSU Swimming and Diving on Facebook.
Schedule of events:
Tuesday, Jan. 3
Women’s one-meter Prelim/Quarterfinal- 10 a.m.
Men’s three-meter Prelim/Quarterfinal- 10 a.m.
Women’s one-meter Final- 5 p.m.
Men’s three-meter Final- 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan 4
Women’s three-meter Prelim/Quarterfinal- 10 a.m.
Men’s one-meter Prelim/Quarterfinal- 10 a.m.
Women’s three-meter Final- 5 p.m.
Men’s one-meter Final- 5 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 5
Women’s Platform (5 dives)- 10 a.m.
Men’s Platform (6 dives)- 10 a.m.