BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU diving team is set to compete in the four-day-long Auburn Diving Invitational inside the James E. Martin Aquatic Center starting Saturday. The first day of competition begins at 11:00 a.m. and the event concludes Tuesday following the Women’s platform event.
“Coming off of final exams, the Auburn Invite is a bit of a different opportunity for our team,” diving head coach Drew Livingston said. “It’s important for us to take this trip together in order to refocus our athletes for the challenges ahead in February and March. This is a great kickstart for us to get back into form and feel some competition.”
The first day of the invitational has one event: the men’s one-meter springboard. The divers will compete in the prelims during the morning session with the top eight advancing to the finals in the evening session.
On the second day, the field expands with the women competing on the one-meter springboard and the men moving over to the three-meter springboard. Both events follow the same formula with the prelims determining the top eight divers competing in the final. The women’s one-meter will be completed first followed by the men’s three-meter.
The final two days include the men moving up to the platform with the women concluding the springboard rotation on Sunday. The women complete the event Monday by competing in the platform event.
The field includes a well-rounded group of four teams: Auburn, Tennessee, and Illinois.
“Auburn, Tennessee, and Illinois will challenge our roster from top to bottom and give us a teaser for SEC and NCAA competition,” Livingston said. “This is our first step toward the most important half of our season and we’re excited to have the opportunity to represent LSU.”
LAST TIME OUT
LSU competed in their midseason invitationals. The diving team went to the Texas Diving Invitational, where they collected some hard-fought wins and good performances. Carson Paul claimed the top spot on platform with a nation-best score of 438.35 at the time.