Diving Heads to NCAA Zone ‘D’ Regional

BATON ROUGE — LSU Diving will send six athletes to the NCAA Zone ‘D’ Regionals to compete for the only chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships hosted at the CRWC Natatorium in Iowa City, Iowa, from March 8-10.

“Diving is about believing in yourself, getting up and performing,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “I always look at nerves as a positive aspect because it gets your adrenaline flowing and gets your blood flowing. We dive to compete, and this is an opportunity for us to compete.”

LSU will have to perform from start to finish for a chance at the NCAA Championships in a high pressure situation where only nine men and 12 women will qualify from a field consisting of divers from Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas, Iowa, SMU, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Houston.

“There is a lot of competition and when I ran the numbers, it is totally in our capabilities for us to be at the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships with our team,” Shaffer said. “We just have to show up, dive and be on our game in the prelims and finals.”

Freshman Alex Bettridge and junior Elle Schmidt represent the women’s contingent for LSU. Bettridge was named the SEC Female Freshman Diver of the Year and earned All-SEC Freshman status after her performance in the conference championships.

The Austin, Texas native recorded a bronze medal finish (336.85) on the three-meter springboard, shattering the program’s three-meter record. She finished sixth on the one-meter (302.60) as well.

Schmidt cranked out three top-16 performances at SEC’s and earned her personal bests in the one-meter (269.25) and the platform (229.35).

Senior Matt Vieke alongside sophomores Daniel Helm, Kevin Leong and Sean McKinney will compete for the men.

Helm, a Second Team All-SEC selection, registered a silver medal in the one-meter (376.55), which placed him at second in the program’s history. He boasts career high’s of 380.70 on the three-meter and 339.90 on the platform, which is fourth and third best in the program’s records for both events, respectively.

Vieke earned his first top-eight finish of his career at the conference championships with a one-meter mark of 352.60 in a fifth place showing, which catapulted him to fifth in the program’s records. He owns career highs of 388.20 on the three-meter and 314.75 on the one-meter, which is third and fourth, respectively, in the program’s annals.

Leong set his career high on the three-meter against Alabama on Nov. 4th, with a score of 374.25, which is sixth best for the program. At the conference championships, he finished 13th on the platform with a career high 313.55 and 15th on the one-meter (304.65).

McKinney finished 11th in the three-meter at the SEC meet with a total of 337.50.

The format of the competition is unique in that scores will be based on a 12 dive combined list consisting of preliminary and final events. After the first preliminary round, 18 athletes will be selected to the finals and the combined scores will be used as the composite total score.

The standard format uses the preliminary six dives to qualify for the final rounds. The final round score provides final seeding.

The Women’s NCAA Championships will take place March 15-17 at the Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn, Ala. The Men’s NCAA Championships will take place March 22-24 at the Weyerhaeuser King Co. Aquatic Center in Seattle, Wash.

For more information of the LSU Swimming and Diving program, please visit LSUsports.net, follow @LSUSwimDive on Twitter or ‘like’ LSU Swimming and Diving on Facebook.

Live results are available through DiveMeets.com.