Tennessee’s Robles, Missouri’s Reedy heat up at the Tennessee Diving Invite

The Tennessee Diving Invitational offered an early look at how diving might impact conference and NCAA finishes this coming season, at least for the mainly-East Coast teams who attended.

On the men’s side, the big story was Tennessee’s Maurico Robles, who dominated in his home pool, taking two wins and a second-place finish. Robles, a three-event scorer at NCAAs last year, looked very good, crushing the field on 3-meter, winning 1-meter by a decent margin and coming within 10 points of taking Platform.

The now-junior was the 3rd-place finisher at NCAAs last year on 3-meter, and could be in line to add top-8 finishes on the other two boards this season as well.

He dropped Platform to Auburn senior Fraser McKean, who is looking like a real factor in his final collegiate season. McKean was 13th on Platform at NCAAs last year, the only event in which he scored, but his runner-up finish in Tennessee might suggest he’ll be adding another scoring event this spring.

In more good news for Auburn, freshman Pete Turnham finished top 8 on all three boards. If the Tigers could get two divers to score at NCAAs, it’d be a big boost for a program that has a talented, if somewhat incomplete, swimming lineup at the moment. Turnham still has some work to do to get to NCAA scoring level, but his performances last weekend were promising.

Georgia’s Ian Forlini continued his impressive freshman season with a pair of top-4 finishes. It’s been a flood of good news for Georgia as of late. Their men came up big at their home mid-season rest meet, and the lineup holes seem to be filling in quickly just as head coach Jack Baurle prepares to make his return to the pool deck. After a solid crop of sprint freestylers materialized almost out of thin air, now Georgia also has a diver with a shot to score NCAA points.

The other team coming on strong is Missouri, which had two divers score. Freshman Hunter Fritter is the newcomer and junior Clark Thomas the vet, and both could provide big boosts to a Missouri lineup of swimmers that’s looking scarier by the week.

For the women, Missouri’s Lauren Reedy was the breakout star. Reedy, a junior, made her first NCAA Championships last season, and appears ready to take the next step into scoring range this year. Reedy won both 1-meter and 3-meter, each by double-digit margins.

For the most part, though, the overall scoring was dominated by Louisiana State and Kentucky, who each had multiple athletes in the top 8 of all three diving events.

LSU’s Cassie Weil, a returning All-American, won Platform, leading a 1-2-3 sweep of Tigers. Alex Bettridge and freshman Madison Sthamann finished two and three. LSU got all 17 of its NCAA points from Weil in 2014, so their diving corps will be vital to their post-season finish.

Kentucky, meanwhile, put three divers in the top 10 in all three events. Senior Christa Cabot is a returning All-American, and she finished as high as third on 1-meter in Tennessee. Cabot had a rough finals session in her best event, 3-meter, but still had a good weekend all-around, and her teammates Rebecca Hamperian (2nd on 3-meter) and Lindsay Keahey (top 8 in all three events) look like they’ll have outside shots to join her in the scoring column at this year’s NCAAs.

You can find full results by following these links, and we’ve also transcribed the top 8 in each event below:

• Day 1 results (men’s 1-meter, women’s 3-meter)
• Day 2 results (men’s 3-meter, women’s 1-meter)
• Day 3 results (platform)

Men’s Results

1-meter

1. Maurico Robles, Tennessee – 387.40
2. Devin Burnett, SMU – 371.45
3. Ian Forlini, Georgia – 349.85
4. Fraser McKean, Auburn – 344.25
5. Clark Thomas, Missouri – 340.65
6. Crawford Berry, Georgia – 308.35
7. Hunter Fritter, Missouri – 307.15
8. Pete Turnham, Auburn – 305.05

3-meter

1. Maurico Robles, Tennessee – 405.40
2. Fraser McKean, Auburn – 364.05
3. Devin Burnett, SMU – 357.25
4. Ian Forlini, Georgia – 351.55
5. Hunter Fritter, Missouri – 347.35
6. Daniel Helm, LSU – 340.70
7. Andrew Suchla, LSU – 332.55
8. Pete Turnham, Auburn – 331.05

Platform

1. Fraser McKean, Auburn – 374.30
2. Maurico Robles, Tennessee – 364.90
3. Devin Burnett, SMU – 316.50
4. Daniel Helm, LSU – 310.75
5. Andrew Suchla, LSU – 284.90
6. James Parker Meinecke, SMU – 284.00
7. Hunter Fritter, Missouri – 282.90
8. Pete Turnham, Auburn – 273.10

Women’s results

1-meter

1. Lauren Reedy, Missouri – 320.40
2. Alex Bettridge, LSU – 305.70
3. Christa Cabot, Kentucky – 301.15
4. Cassie Weil, LSU – 291.85
5. Rachel Mumma, NC State – 287.00
6. Alexa Beckwith, Missouri – 278.45
7. Lindsay Keahey, Kentucky – 276.10
8. Rebecca Hamperian, Kentucky – 258.25

3-meter

1. Lauren Reedy, Missouri – 342.60
2. Rebecca Hamperian, Kentucky – 332.10
3. Cassie Weil, LSU – 328.25
4. Olivia Ball, Georgia – 325.70
5. Alex Bettridge, LSU – 319.35
6. Rachel Mumma, NC State – 303.60
7. Samantha Lera, Tennessee – 294.85
8. Lindsay Keahey, Kentucky – 292.30

Platform

1. Cassie Weil, LSU – 275.55
2. Alex Bettridge, LSU – 267.75
3. Madison Sthamann, LSU – 238.40
4. Cinzia Calabretta, Auburn – 238.05
5. Rebecca Hamperian, Kentucky – 235.05
6. Christa Cabot, Kentucky – 231.45
7. Darcie O’Brien, Georgia – 228.40
8. Lindsay Keahey, Kentucky – 228.30