MOULTRIE, Ga. – Colquitt County’s Lauryn McCalley Niday added to her long and impressive list of accomplishments when she recently joined the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame. The former Moss Farms and University of Tennessee diver was part of a five-person class inducted on Saturday, Aug. 20, at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

She joins in the Hall of Fame her former coach Moose Moss, who was one of the inductees of the inaugural class in 2011.

In addition to her family, she was joined at the induction banquet by Dave Parrington, her coach at Tennessee, and several of her college teammates.

Introducing McCalley Niday was Camila McLean, a longtime member of the Moss Farms Diving program and a Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame board member.

One of the most-honored athletes ever from Colquitt County, McCalley Niday was not only one of the nation’s top divers, she was an outstanding student and while competing for the Lady Volunteers, was named the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2005 for her achievements in athletics, academics and community service.

Coached by Moss, Jay Lerew and Wenbo Chen while competing as a junior for the Moss Farms Diving Tigers, she won nine gold medals and five silver medals in U.S. Diving National Championships. She represented the United States in competitions in Malaysia, the Czech Republic and in Alberta, Canada.

McCalley Niday was the Georgia Diver of the Year from 1995-1999 and was a two-time state high school champion.

She won 3-meter diving championships at the Senior National Championships in 2000 and 2001 and qualified for the World Championships.

She also won three Senior National championships in 3-meter synchronized diving with partner – and Moss Farms Diving teammate – Lane Bassham Winchester.

At Tennessee, she was the SEC Freshman Diver of the Year and went on to become a five-time All-American.

She had four top-eight finishes at the NCAA Championships and was fifth on 1-meter in 2003.

And while her diving resume was outstanding, it was perhaps surpassed by her accomplishments out of the water.

The Colquitt County High School Class of 1998 salutatorian, she went on to become an NCAA Academic All-American and in 2004 was named one of glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College Women.

In 2005, she received one of two Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards, earning her a $10,000 graduate school scholarship.

After graduating from Tennessee with a degree in microbiology, she attended pharmacy school at the University of Georgia, where she was honored as the R.C. Wilson Outstanding Student in 2009.

She was inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

Joining her in being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year were former University of Georgia swimmer Veronica Stroup Holz; Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Hans Dersch; world champion swimmer Kyle Miller from Jesup; and 28-time All-American and four-time Olympic silver medalist Kara Lynn Joyce, also University of Georgia swimmer.

McCalley Niday lives in Colquitt County where she works part-time with the Colquitt Regional Medical Center pharmacy.

She and husband Mark Niday, a pharmacist at Fred’s Pharmacy in Moultrie, have two children, daughter ElliReese, 4 ½, and son Mark Carlson, 3 months.