KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In the first competition of 2022, the Auburn divers took part in eight events over four days at the Tennessee Diving Invitational this week in the same pool where the SEC Swimming & Diving Championships will be held next month.
The Tigers earned six top-five finishes in the individual events against a field that included four other SEC teams and eight teams in total.
"Overall, it was a good meet for us," head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "We showed some of our strengths and some of our weaknesses that we need to focus on, but they got another opportunity to see a couple other SEC schools. We've competed against most of the SEC schools, so this meet should give them an idea of where we stand and what we need to improve upon to be competitive when we look at the SECs.
"I think the benefit of being at Tennessee where we're going to have the SECs is going to be really strong for us. They'll already be acclimated to that pool."
For the second straight meet, Conner Pruitt finished top thee on both springboard events. The senior took second in the 1-meter final with a score of 345.65 and then followed that with a third-place finish on 3-meter after posting 382.65 points in the final. Pruitt's 352.50 in the 1-meter prelims was tops among all divers in the field.
Freshman Whit Andrus set a career-best (330.40) in the 1-meter final to finish fifth. He secured a second list on both the 1-meter and 3-meter. Sophomore Hunter Kebler saved his best performance for last, finishing sixth on platform with 324.75 points to close out the meet.
The Auburn men placed fourth in the men's team event.
On the women's side, Gretchen Wensuc and Ashlynn Sullivan led the way for the Tigers. Wensuc had a pair of top-five finishes, taking third on platform and fifth in the 3-meter final. The junior posted NCAA Zone qualifying scores in both events.
Sullivan was Auburn's top finisher on both 1-meter and 3-meter. She placed seventh in the 1-meter final, though her prelims score (265.20) was fourth highest, and she finished fourth on 3-meter with 285.65, another Zone qualifying score, in the final.
Led by Wensuc, Sullivan and freshman Abigail Farrar, the Auburn women finished second in the women's team event behind South Carolina.
With Saturday's dual meet against Georgia Tech canceled, the Auburn S&D team will return to the pool Saturday, Jan. 15 for a road dual meet at Alabama. It's the first of two dual meets on the road in January. The Tigers will travel to Florida on Jan. 22.
