BATON ROUGE – – The LSU swimming and diving team closed out the regular season Saturday afternoon with two big wins. The women and men were both victorious over the Florida State Seminoles in the final dual meet of the 1999-2000 season.
“We did an outstanding job of swimming today,” said head coach Rick Meador. “It was huge meet for our team, and they really stepped it up today. This meet has helped us gain some momentum, and now we are both prepared and ready for the upcoming SEC Championships.”
The 19th-ranked Tigers, under the leadership of junior captain Ken “Buzz” Kuhn, and sophomore All-American Rodrigo Castro, outscored the 22nd-ranked Seminoles, 147-96. With the win, the Tigers improved to 6-2 on the season, while Florida State dropped to 6-4.
The Lady Tigers, who are ranked 24th in the nation, fought back from an early deficit to cruise to a resounding 139-104 victory.
“The girls did a great job today,” Meador said. “The meet should have been a lot closer, but our team just picked up its level of intensity and swam some of the best races that I have seen from them this season.”
The LSU women’s swimming and diving team finished with at least eight wins for the fourth-straight season, as Saturday’s win over Florida State gave the Lady Tigers a final 8-2 overall record in dual meets.
The LSU Tiger’s freestyle swimmers, Kuhn and Castro, both won all three of their events on the day. Kuhn buzzed his way through the competition in both the 50-yard (20.07) and the 100-yard freestyle (44.51) competitions.
Kuhn’s time of 20.07 in the 50-free is the fastest time of his career and the third-fastest in the SEC this season. He also anchored the relay team of senior Neal Satterly, sophomore Steve Gluck, and senior Tommy Starkweather which won the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:20.31.
Castro, the LSU sophomore from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was also victorious in all three of his events. Two of his wins came in back-to-back races. Castro finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle competition with a time of 9:27.74, then in the very next men’s race swam a 1:40.93 in the 200-yard freestyle to pick up his second victory of the day.
In the 500-yard freestyle, Castro won his third event in the meet by swimming a time of 4:35.81. Satterly, the Tiger senior from Frankfurt, Kent., won the final home race of his LSU career Saturday, as he blew by the competition in the 200-backstroke with a winning time of 1:50.64.
“I am extremely proud of the six seniors that swam in their final home meet today,” said Meador. “They are a great group of young adults, they are all talented swimmers and divers, and I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to coach each and every one of them.”
On the women’s side of the meet, LSU senior captain Melissa Knox dominated the 1000-yard freestyle event in her last home meet, and finished first with a time of 10:09.21. Mandy Leach was victorious in both the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle competitions with times of 50.37 and 1:49.51 respectively.
LSU won all four of the diving competitions in the meet against Florida State. The Lady Tigers swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. Sophomore Jaime Watkins won the 1-meter (281.325), while junior Ashley Culpepper placed second (270.750), and sophomore Holly Winters finished in third (262.125).
The Tiger’s senior diver, Corey Fox, was victorious in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events on the men’s side. In the 1-meter competition he finished with 308.850 points, while in the 3-meter he totaled 320.40 from the board.
The LSU swimming and diving teams will next be in action February 16-19 as they travel to Auburn, Ala., for the SEC Championships.