BATON ROUGE — The LSU Diving team ended the second day of competition at the Georgia Diving Invitational hungry to show improvement in the final day of the event.
The men competed on the one-meter springboard while the women dove on the three-meter during the second day of competition.
“Although as a group we showed some inconsistency and made some errors, sophomore Daniel Helm really rose to the occasion finishing fifth in the one-meter event, qualifying for the Bulldog Shootout and then winning it,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “His performance for the day was excellent.”
Helm earned his fifth place finish with a mark of 317.10 in the final round after posting the fourth highest score in the morning (300.20).
Senior Matt Vieke struggled in the final round and finished in 14th place with a mark of 280.25 after shining in the preliminary round with a total of 300.65, which put him at third place.
Sophomore Kevin Leong narrowly missed out at competing in the finals with a 19th place finish in the preliminary round and a score of 255.95.
On the women’s side, junior Elle Schmidt could not deliver the same sort of performance she showed in the preliminary round where she put up a score of 267.00, which placed her in fifth entering the finals. In the final round, Schmidt completed her day in 14th place (243.50).
Freshman Alex Bettridge cracked the top-10 with a ninth place finish and a score of 256.50 after she finished 11th in the preliminary round with a score of 253.95
The Tigers will look to excel in their final platform diving test before post-season competition.
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:
Thursday, Jan. 5
Women’s Platform (5 dives)- 10 a.m.
Men’s Platform (6 dives)- 12 p.m.