BATON ROUGE – – In the final preseason intrasquad meet of the season for the LSU swimming and diving teams, the annual Purple-Gold meet ended with the Purple team winning 227-199 Friday afternoon. The Lady Tigers will begin season play Saturday morning against Southeastern Conference foe, Arkansas, at 11 a.m. in the LSU Natatorium.
“I am impressed with today’s performance,” said head coach Rick Meador. “I am looking forward to seeing what the team can do in the regular season, and especially with the women in tomorrow’s meet. It was a really productive afternoon for us, it gave us a chance to see our swimmers in a competitive atmosphere and will prepare us for the season.”
Highlighting the afternoon were the impressive showings from Mandy Leach, Rodrigo Castro, and Buzz Kuhn. They each placed first in two events, and looked to be in mid-season form.
The sophomore Castro won both the 500-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle. In the 500, he finished with a time of 4:42.05. Stephen Naremore came in second with a 4:42.97, and Dennis Rowe placed third by swimming a time of 4:47.63.
In both the 200 and 100-meter freestyles, Leach finished at the top of the leaderboard in first place. She swam a time of 1:52.29 in the 200, and 51.92 in the 100. The second place winner in the 100 was Julie Hughes with 53.56, and finishing in third place was Ashley Marxen who timed in at 54.03.
Kuhn won his two events in the 50 and 100-meter freestyles. In the 50 he finished in 20.84, while in the 100 he placed first with a time of 46.03.
In the diving competition, Corey Fox finished first in both the 1-meter event and the 3-meter event for the Tigers. The victor in the women’s 1-meter diving competition was NCAA Championship contender Ashley Culpepper, but in the 3-meter event the winner was sophomore Jamie Watkins.
The LSU men’s swimming and diving team will begin their season Nov. 6 on the road against SEC rival Alabama.