BATON ROUGE, La. – Nine members of The LSU swimming and diving program will earn their LSU degrees Friday as the university holds commencement ceremonies across campus to hand out degrees to the newest graduates.
Eight of the nine Tigers walked across the stage, earning their undergraduate degree, with Katarina Milutinovich receiving her master’s in business administration. The remaining eight included the following athletes who have made significant contributions to the program in the pool and the classroom:
Hannah Bellina (Kinesiology)
Brooke Boling (Kinesiology)
Jenna Bridges (Mass Communications)
Maddie Howell (Mass Communications)
Sarah Grace Thompson (Biology)
Allison Tomsuden (Sports Administration)
Helle Tuxen (Management)
Nick Toepfer (Finance)
Bellina competed at the NCAA Championships in her freshman season when she first started to swim for the Tigers in 2021. She placed 47th in the 200-fly with a time of 2:00.44. The same year, Bellina earned a spot in the Wave I session of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and was named to the First-Year Academic Honor Roll by the Southeastern Conference.
For the past season, Boling has served as a swimming and diving team manager. She has helped the coordinator of LSU Swimming and Diving Operations complete travel obligations and food orders for the team during home and away meets.
Bridges won the 2023 SEC Championship in the 200-fly with a time of 1:54.18. She earned her spot in the NCAA Championships and swam in the 200-fly, 100-fly, and 500-free. Bridges was named to the First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll and the previous two SEC Winter Academic Honor Rolls.
Howell and Thompson finished their careers with an appearance on the First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll and made several appearances on the SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll. Toepfer closed it out with a finish on the SEC winter Academic Honor Rolls twice.
Tuxen qualified for the NCAA meet in each of her four seasons at LSU. She earned SEC Diver of the Week in 2022 and was named to the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll.