Virginia Set for Georgia Diving Invitational

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s and women’s divers will compete this week at the Georgia Diving Invitational and Shootout, which runs Tuesday through Thursday at Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Ga.

The event has a format similar to the upcoming ACC, Zone and NCAA Championships. Prelims will start at 11 a.m. each day and a shootout for the top six divers will begin at 6 p.m. The Cavaliers will face off against six SEC opponents, including Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee and the host Bulldogs. Drexel, Iowa State, Penn State and SMU round out the field.

“This meet is one of the most competitive in the country outside of NCAAs,” Virginia diving coach Rich MacDonald said. “It will be a good challenge. It will also give us the opportunity to see where we are as a group heading into the final seven weeks of the season.”

In the shootout, each diver will do a dive of his choice with the competitor with the lowest score from each round eliminated until two divers remain. The order of each round is determined by the scores from the previous round with the best score going last. There are five groups and each diver will call out his dive before he goes and cannot repeat a group.

Of the five Cavalier divers who will compete at the Georgia Invitational, only one – senior Briggy Imbriglia – has previous experience at the conference championships. JB Kolod and Laura Gartrell are both freshmen while Kelly Lloyd and Carlin Tettelbach are sophomores.

“With such a young team, any time we can be in this big meet environment, it’s going to help us,” MacDonald continued. “Briggy is one of the best leaders I have ever had in all my years of coaching. He takes the younger ones under his wing and reminds them how to compete. One thing this group does very well is it pushes and looks out for each other.”