MOULTRIE – Former Colquitt County and Moss Farms diver Lauryn McCalley Niday has been selected for induction into the University of Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame.
She is part of an eight-member 2025 class that will be honored April 11-12 in Knoxville.
The induction ceremony will be held on Friday, April 11, inside the Food City Center.
The following day, the group will be honored at Tennessee’s football spring Orange and White football game at Neyland Stadium.
Niday is no stranger to receiving such an honor.
In 2012, she was inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame and in 2016 joined the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame.
She is perhaps the most honored athlete to come out of Colquitt County’s storied Moss Farm Diving program, where she trained under Moose Moss, Jay Lerew and Wenbo Chen.
As a junior diver, she won nine National Championships and three National Synchronized Diving titles with Moss Farms teammate Lane Bassham Winchester.
During her career, she represented the United States in competitions in Malaysia, the Czech Republic and Canada.
She was the female Georgia Diver of the Year from 1995-1999 and was a two-time Georgia high school champion.
At Tennessee, she was a member of the diving team from 2001-2004, and was coached by Dave Parrington.
In her first year, she was named the SEC Freshman of the year and won her first national championship.
She was a five-time All-American diver while at Tennessee, where her top score on the 1-meter springboard, a 313.20, still ranks eighth in program history.
She also was a four-time Academic All-American.
In 2004, she was named to GLAMOUR Magazine’s top 10 College Women list.
Niday earned her degree in microbiology and won the prestigious H. Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 2005.
Also that year, she was named the 2005 NCAA Woman of the Year, honoring her achievements in athletics, academics and community service.
After graduating from Tennessee, she attended the University of Georgia’s school of pharmacy where she was honored as the R.C. Wilson Outstanding Student in 2009.
She has worked as a pharmacist since returning to Moultrie and she and husband Mark are the parents of son Mark and daughter ElliReese, already a seven-time Junior National Champion diver at age 13.
The University of Tennessee’s 2025 Hall of Fame class also includes Eric Berry, football; A.W. Davis, men’s basketball; Jenny Connolly, swimming; Mike Masters, swimming; Lindsay Schutzler, softball; Mike Sposa, men’s golf; and Tony White, men’s basketball.