Garcia will join UF after qualifying for NCAA’s on the 3-meter springboard as a freshman in 2019-20.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida men’s swimming and diving team officially announced the addition of diver Leonardo Garcia, a 2020 NCAA Championships qualifier, to the program as a transfer.
Garcia will join the Gators after a successful freshman season at the University of Missouri. He finished his first collegiate season at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, securing an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with a sixth-place finish on the 3-meter springboard.
In his first SEC Championships on Feb. 18-23, he posted a pair of top-eight finishes, tallying a fourth-place nod on the platform and finishing in eighth-place on 3-meter. Both scores were his best of the season.
The postseason success was no surprise after the Cali, Colombia native posted six wins throughout the regular season, four on 3-meter and two on 1-meter, and earned SEC Men’s Diver of the Week on Oct. 8, 2019 after sweeping the springboards at Missouri’s Show-Me Showdown on Oct. 4, 2019.
Garcia will leave the Tigers with the fifth-best 3-meter and platform score in program history, as well as the eighth-highest 1-meter score ever.
Internationally, Garcia competed at the 2017 Junior Pan American Diving Championships.
“We are very excited to have Leo joining the Gators,” said Head diving coach Bryan Gillooly. “He is a special diver with tons of drive and talent, as well as a being great young man. Expect some fireworks when he dives because he is capable of perfection.”
Garcia will sit out the 2020-21 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
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