DALLAS, Texas – – The LSU men’s swimming and diving team finished the first day of the Dallas Morning News Classic in fourth place Friday. The competition is extremely close in the Perkins Natatorium on the campus of SMU, where only 65 points separates all six teams taking part in the event.
The University of Nebraska leads the way with 171 total points, but they only lead the hometown favorite SMU Mustangs by one point. SMU finished the day with 170.
Florida State, LSU and Texas A&M are all in a tight race for third place. The Seminoles have a minute 131-130 lead over the Tigers, but Texas A&M is in the hunt with 129 points. Arizona State rounds up the competition with 106 day one points.
“Our guys did a good job tonight,” said LSU head coach Rick Meador. “I’m pleased with how we are still in the middle of things here, even though we’ve had some injuries and we’re without two of our best swimmers. We just have to step it up a little bit tomorrow and work a bit harder if we’re going to get a win.”
In what was definitely the best race of the day, LSU captain Ken Kuhn finished second in the 50-yard freestyle, and was edged out by SMU’s Matt Weghorst who won by eleven one-hundredths of a second, 20.49 to 20.60.
The Tigers took third place in the 400-yard medley relay competition as the team of Neal Satterly, Steve Gluck, Kuhn, and Eddie Aguilar finished with a time of 3:23.05.
Also placing third on the day was LSU junior Corey Fox. Fox earned the Tigers some points in the 1-meter diving competition as he finished with a score of 283.85.
Tiger sophomore Stephen Gluck swam the 100-yard breaststroke in 57.79 seconds, which was good enough to earn him the fourth top-3 finish of the day for LSU. Gluck placed third in the event.
The Dallas Morning News Classic will continue Saturday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m.