As if the Georgia incoming class weren’t scary enough, they’ve now added probably the only piece that was missing from a team that might challenge the Cal juggernaut for a NCAA National Title: diving.
The Bulldogs will have a new face in Indiana transfer Laura Ryan next season.
Ryan won a pair of All-American awards last year as a sophomore; that included an 8th-place finish on the 3-meter springboard and 12th on the 1-meter for a total of 16 NCAA points. Additionally, she was 12th in prelims of the platform but scratched the final.
Ryan will join an incoming group that includes Chantal van Landeghem, Brittany MacLean, Annie Zhu, and Hali Flickinger, all of whom have big NCAA scoring potential as freshmen. Presuming Allison Schmitt returns after winning Olympic gold (the last we heard was at Trials in Omaha that she was remaining an amateur and planning on returning to Athens), then the 56-point gap between Georgia and Cal from last year’s NCAA Championships suddenly doesn’t seem that big.
Of course, Cal has a huge class of their own, but things are shaping up that we’ll at least see a battle.
