BATON ROUGE — The LSU Diving team finished the first day of competition at the Georgia Diving Invitational with four top-six finishes in two events.
“We had an excellent day at the Georgia aquatic center,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “Alex Bettridge, Elle Schmidt, Matt Vieke and Daniel Helm all recorded top-6 finishes in their respective events. Their performances were on par with finaling at the SEC Championships as well as competing for births to the NCAA Championships.”
“We have started on a good foot. I want to see this level of performance and success over the next two days of competition.”
On the men’s three-meter dive, Helm and Vieke battled valiantly and finished in fourth and fifth respectively.
Vieke finished the preliminary round with the highest mark in the event with a score of 358.45. His six-dive total in the final round netted him a score of 348.30.
On the other hand, Helm improved his score from the morning session to the afternoon. His preliminary score was of 335.95 was ninth highest of the event and he improved by 21 points with his final round score of 356.95.
On the women’s side, Bettridge and Schmidt earned fourth and sixth respectively on the one-meter springboard.
Bettridge ended both the preliminary and final round in fourth with marks of 270.60 in the morning and 266.75 in the evening.
Schmidt jumped three spots to sixth in the final round with a five-dive score of 247.90 in the preliminary round and 262.25 in the final round.
Sophomore Kevin Leong finished ninth in the three-meter with scores of 313.00 and 324.90.
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.
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:
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.