TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The LSU swimming and diving team lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide, 313-284, in a key Southeastern Conference meet on Friday evening at the Alabama Aquatic Center.
“We knew coming in to the meet that Alabama would be very tough to beat here,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “They are a great team, but I am proud of our athletes performance tonight.”
The meet consisted of 16 events with each scored separately for men and women, for a total of 32. Alabama won 18 of 32 events at the meet. LSU senior Mandy Leach won three events on Friday. Leach won the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard butterfly, and set new season-best times in each event. Leach edged Alabama’s Irini Kosta by 31 seconds in the 200, finishing with a time of 1:51.22. The previous top mark was a 1:53.02 by Stephanie Smith against Houston in October.
Leach finished the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.21. Dawn Coy posted a 53.12 against Houston, which was the previous best mark. Leach won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.00, passing the 57.73 by Margot Gathings versus Arkansas earlier this season. Smith, a sophomore from Metairie, La., won two events for the Tigers on Friday. Smith won the 1000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. Smith won the 1000 with a time of 10:07.39, which is 17 seconds better than her score of 10:07.54 against Arkansas last month.
Smith’s time in the 500 was 4:56.38. In the meet versus Houston last month in Baton Rouge, Smith swam the 500 in a time of 4:56.12. She missed the NCAA B Cut of the Qualifying Standards by just over a second with that score. Freshman Lindsay Staak won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.90. The score bettered the score of 57.02 she posted against Arkansas.
Gathings won the 200-yard butterfly, posting a time of 2:04.46.
On the men’s side, senior Steve Gluck won both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. Gluck’s time in the 100 was 56:53 and he finished the 200 in 2:05.56. Gluck also teamed with Mike Jotautas, Evan Martinec, and Fransisco Paez to win the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:21.63. Martinec won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 50:06. Matt Rcuker won the 50-freestyle ,and Kevin Manecke won 1-meter diving competition with a score of 181.25.
Kyle VanArdsall gave LSU a sweep of the men’s diving competition with a win in the 3-meter competition. He finished with a total score of 188.00.
Alabama won both diving competitions on the women’s side.
LSU has now faced Alabama twice this season. The Tigers and Crimson Tide faced each other last weekend at the SEC West Quad Meet at Fayetteville, Ark. Arkansas and Auburn also participated at the meet.
LSU’s next meet is the Nike Cup Invitational at Chapel Hill, N.C., on Nov.15-17. The Tigers next home meet is January 2002 when the men face Florida.