BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s swimming and diving team opened its 2001-02 season by beating Houston, 156-84, at the LSU Natatorium on Friday.
“It was a good meet for the beginning of the season, but if we want to beat Arkansas tomorrow we will have to raise it up another level”, said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana.
Sophomore Stephanie Smith led the Tigers on Friday by winning two events, the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle. The Metairie, La., native missed the NCAA B Cut of the Qualifying Standards by just over a second in the 500.
“She (Stephanie Smith) had a great summer, she really made some good strides and qualified for nationals”, said Assistant Swimming coach Lars Jorgensen. “She continues to get better, and I am happy with her performance.”
In the meet, the Tigers were victorious in 10 of the 13 events. Houston won both diving competitions, the one and three-meter and the 1,650-yard freestyle. In the three-meter diving competition, Houston’s Yulia Pakhalina set two pool records with a score of 358.50. She also placed first in the one-meter diving competition with a score of 327.96.
“We may be a little ahead of schedule judging by our performance today. We just did really well today, it was awesome for our first meet”, said Cavana.
Freshman Margot Gathings was also a dual winner for LSU. She won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 106.79 and won the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:28.61. Freshman Lindsey Staak won the 100-yard backstroke and was on both victorious relay squads, the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay. Staak’s mark of 57.02 in the 100-yard moved her into fourth place all-time in LSU history.
The Lady Tigers return to action Saturday at 1 p.m. when they welcome Arkansas to the LSU Natatorium.