Fifth-year divers, seniors Brent Sterling and Jodie McGroarty have been named the male and female SEC Divers of the Week. Their selections were announced on January 8.

McGroarty won the 3-meter springboards competition, at the Tennessee Diving Invitational for the third time this season, posting a six-dive score of 331.55. She has been consistent on the 3 meter in her final season, having posted a score of at least 325 five times this season.  She also was second on the 1-meter springboard.

McGroarty entered the last round in second place with her favorite dive, the reverse 2 1/2 somersault tuck, to go. Diving last in the competition, she hit the dive for an afternoon-high score of 65.80 to move past Cassie Weil of LSU into first with a six-dive score of 331.55, the third time this year she has scored more than 330 in the event.

“That’s my favorite dive, and it’s probably my most consistent,” McGroarty said. “But every now and again it gets me down a bit because I get a little too confident or I put too much pressure on myself thinking this is that dive that always gets you out of trouble, my ‘get out of jail free’ card. But it worked because I was trying to focus on doing things right instead of trying to do things well.”

Brent Sterling scored in the top 10 of all three diving events. He was fourth on the 3-meter springboard, eighth on the 1-meter springboard and ninth on his platform dive. The platform dive was a career best for the Knoxville native. It was the first time he has scored over 300 from the tower. He also threw down his second-best career score of 394.45 in the preliminaries of the 3-meter competition, his top event.

This is the third SEC Diver of the Week honors for UT. Tori Lamp was named the Diver of the Week for her performance at the Tennessee Invitational.

By Nancy Morris