University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Georgia Diving Invitational
Helms Finishes Third on Platform
January 05, 2012 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Jan. 5, 2012
Junior Ryan Helms took third place in the platform competition Thursday in the final afternoon of the Georgia Diving Invitational in Athens, Ga.
Despite limited training on the tower because of injuries, Helms finished his six dives with a season-best score of 344.95 to finish third at the Gabrielsen Natatorium.
"Ryan was able to go today, even though he was a little beaten up," Tennessee diving coach Dave Parrington said. "It was one of his best performances ever on the platform, which was impressive especially since he hasn't practiced much on there because of a sore shoulder."
Helms wrapped up a solid meet at Georgia, finishing second on both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards the previous two days.
Junior Jordan Mauney punched his ticket to the NCAA Zone B Championships with his best score of the season: 300.25, good for 11th place. Parrington said Mauney getting that NCAA qualifying score on the platform was among the goals for the meet.
Junior Brent Sterling placed 22nd with a score of 227.90.
Parrington said freshman Mauricio Robles did not compete on the tower because of injury. Robles' only platform competition this season has been nothing short of impressive; he was the second Vol to ever score more than 400 points from the tower with a score of 404.00.
"Overall, I was mostly pleased with our performance this meet," Parrington said. "We'll implement changes as we need to when we dive again in the championship format coming up in the SECs and later meets. We'll definitely use what we learned here moving forward the next few weeks."
John Santeiu of Auburn won the event with a score of 397.45.
Tennessee's next dual meet will be back in Athens, Ga., when the swimming and diving squad travels to Georgia on Jan. 21.
