BATON ROUGE – – The LSU women’s swimming and diving team opened its regular season Saturday by defeating Arkansas in the LSU Natatorium. The Lady Tigers won its first Southeastern Conference meet of the season by toppling the Razorbacks 176-115.
“It was a great first outing for our girls,” said head coach Rick Meador. “I’m really happy with the outcome of the meet and how they competed today. Our freshmen performed extremely well, and it’s going to be an exciting season for them as they get better and continue to learn more.”
Lady Tiger freshmen, Stephanie Smith and Suzie Flook each took first-place honors in two events. Smith swept the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle competitions with winning times of 5:03.32 in the 500, and 10:20.80 in the 1000.
Flook, the freshman from Reading Berks, England, won both the 100 and 200-yard butterfly events. She did so with times of 57.13 and 2:03.40. The third Lady Tiger freshman to capture first-place honors was Julie Hughes who sprinted to a time of 24.34 in the 50-yard freestyle.
Also leading the way for LSU (1-0, 1-0) were sophomores Mandy Leach and Cissy Schepens. Leach won first-place honors in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events with times of 52.29 and 1:52.12, while Schepens dominated both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke competitions with her swims of 1:05.58 and 2:20.25.
“The team did an excellent job today, but we must start to swim even better because the competition is only going to be tougher from here on out,” said Meador.
The Lady Tigers will next be in action Friday, October 29 in a double dual meet against both Houston and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The meet will begin at 4 p.m. in the LSU Natatorium.