BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s swimming and diving team faces Florida in a battle of two nationally ranked teams Thursday at 6 p.m. at the LSU Natatorium.
“If we get good performances from all of our guys we will have a shot to best Florida,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “We will have to be hitting on all cylinders to beat them, it would be a major upset if we are able to win.”
The Tigers are currently ranked 23rd in the latest College Swim Coaches of America Top 25 poll, and the Gators are ranked 14th. Florida finished fifth at last season’s NCAA Championships. The Tigers are 0-13 all-time versus Florida with the last meeting in the series coming in the 1996-97 season.
“We have never beaten their men, so this is a real challenge for us,” Cavana said. “They will be a top 10 team at the end of the season and they are a team without many weaknesses. They are pretty well-rounded.”
LSU has not competed since The 2001 Nike Cup Invitational in November of last year. The men finished second at the Nike Cup. This is the first home meet of the season for the men, having only competed at the annual Purple-Gold Intrasquad exhibition meet back in September.
The meet on Thursday evening will feature 13 events including the 1000-yard freestyle, 500 freestyle, and both one and three-meter diving competitions.
“We haven’t had a meet in a while, so they don’t know what we have, which may be to our advantage,” said Cavana.
The Tigers return to action on Friday at 11:00 a.m. when they face Texas A&M at the LSU Natatorium.