BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving team held its postseason banquet this past Friday to conclude yet another successful season and to honor the top performers with achievement awards.
Both the men’s and women’s teams finished the 1999-2000 season ranked among the top 25 programs in the nation. The Lady Tigers ended as the No. 16 team, while the men concluded the season in 23rd-place.
The women’s final national ranking of No. 16 was the highest finish for the Lady Tigers since the 1993 team. In 1993, the Lady Tigers finished as the No. 13 team in the nation.
Five awards were voted on by all of the members of both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams and handed out to the top achievers during the 1999-2000 season. The awards were: Most Valuable, Clutch Award, Coaches Award, Academic Award, and the Most Improved Award.
Winning the Most Valuable Awards were junior divers Ashley Culpepper and Corey Fox. Both of these players were the highest scorers for their respective squads at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, and played a major role in both the Tigers’ and Lady Tigers’ success.
Culpepper won the Most Valuable Award for her third-straight season. She won it as a freshman in 1997-98 and as a sophomore last season.
Winning the Clutch Award for both teams were Mandy Leach and Buzz Kuhn, while the Coaches Award Winners were Cissy Schepens and Will Tanner. Tanner, a junior freestyler and backstroker, also won the Coaches Award in 1997-98 as a freshman.
There was a four-way tie on the Lady Tigers’ side of the Academic Award between Gretchen Mury, Shannon O’Neil, Carly Farrell, and Holly Winters. Jeff Maynor took the Award on the men’s side for the second time in his collegiate career.
Maynor was also honored with the award following the 1997-98 season, while junior Carly Farrell won the award in all three of her years at LSU.
In the final awards category of the ceremony, the Most Improved Award was given to the Lady Tigers’ Melissa Knox and Jaime Watkins. Both Watkins and Knox qualified for the NCAA Championships this season, and Watkins took home the championship trophy in the 1-meter springboard diving event.
Senior Tommy Starkweather was voted the Most Improved men’s swimmer.