BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving team is set to host its final home meet of the season on Saturday as both the Tigers and Lady Tigers take on the Georgia Bulldogs at 4 p.m. in the LSU Natatorium.
“The Georgia teams are definitely among the best in the nation,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “Their women are No. 1 in the country and their men are ranked No. 12. I think that we will win some of the events, but we are just not deep enough this season. They have depth in every event and that is what’s going to hurt us.”
Both of LSU’s swimming and diving teams enter Saturday’s contest with superb dual-meet records. The Lady Tigers head into the contest with a 6-3 overall mark, while the LSU men’s squad is currently 5-2 on the season.
In their last dual-meet contest, the Lady Tigers posted an impressive 133-109 victory over the 24th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies, but the Tigers had no such luck as they were defeated by No. 3 Texas A&M, 140-103, and 23rd-ranked Kentucky, 134-109.
The Georgia women’s team comes into Baton Rouge as the defending National Champions and as the top-ranked swimming and diving team in the nation. The Lady Bulldogs are 7-2 all-time against LSU and have won the previous seven-straight meets. Georgia has not been beaten in a dual meet since 1997.
“Their women’s team is outstanding,” stated Cavana. “You know, as the old adage goes, they don’t rebuild, they reload. Their men are still one of the best teams in the nation. I mean they gave Texas all that they could handle last week.”
The Bulldog swimming and diving squad enters the contest with a 3-2 overall record and as the 12th-ranked team in the nation. Last week, Georgia gave top-ranked Texas a run for their money, but fell short by the score of 166-133.
Representing the LSU swimming and diving team for the final time at home on Saturday in the LSU Natatorium are 13 talented athletes. The seven Lady Tiger seniors are Meghan Claney, Ashley Culpepper, Carly Farrell, Kelli Klein, Ashley Marxen, Lindsey Mooney, and Shannon O’Neal, while the five seniors from the LSU men’s team are Kevin Ayer, Corey Fox, Ken “Buzz” Kuhn, Erik Petursson, and Will Tanner.
“We’re really going to miss this senior class,” said Cavana. “This class is awesome. It includes a National Champion, five All-Americans, and they are definitely a great nucleus for our team. I just hope that we can send them off tomorrow the way that they deserve.”
Culpepper, the 2000 National Diver of the Year, as well as the NCAA Champion of last season’s three-meter springboard competition will conclude her illustrious four-year career as a Tiger in Saturday’s competition. LSU will also send off four more All-Americans versus Georgia in divers Fox and Petursson, as well as team leaders Tanner and Kuhn.
“Corey (Fox) and Erik (Petursson) weren’t the best divers in the world when I recruited them out of high school. They were barely top-50 I think,” said LSU diving coach Scott Reich. “But they were both extremely hard workers and they improved tremendously every year. Now they are two of the best divers in the nation. I’ll take a couple like that any day.”
“Ashley (Culpepper) was a different story,” Reich explained. “She was one of the best divers in the nation coming out of high school, but when she got here she just took it to another level. She has definitely been the catalyst of the women’s team these past four years, and she’s single-handedly kept our diving team in the top-5.”
Saturday’s meet against Georgia is the final home meet of the season for the Tigers and LSU’s 13 seniors will be honored before the meet. The meet will begin at 4 p.m., while “Senior Day Festivities” are scheduled to begin at approximately 3:30 p.m.