COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The LSU swimming and diving teams opened up the 2003 spring season by going 1-2 versus Texas A&M and Rice on Saturday at the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium in College Station.
The LSU women opened up the second half of the season one day earlier then the men, defeating Houston in Houston, Texas on Friday by a score of, 131-93.
The Lady Tigers defeated Rice, 154-107, to improve to 20-2 all-time against them and lost to host Texas A&M by a score of, 170-128. The LSU men lost to the Texas A&M men, 186-104. Rice only has a women’s swimming team. The Texas A&M women defeated Rice, 175-90.
Junior All-American Stephanie Smith won both the 1000-yard freestyle in a time of 10:01.16 and also won the 500-yard free in a time of 4:53.23, an NCAA “B” cut time. She also placed fourth in the 200 free with a time of 1:54.98. Fellow All-American Evan Martinec won the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 49.33 and senior Cissy Schepens won both the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke. She won the 100 for the second-straight day with a time of 1:05.33. She also won the 100-yard breaststroke on Friday versus Houston with a time of 1:06.85. Schepens swam the 200 in a time of 2:18.18, an NCAA “B” cut time.
LSU swept both diving competitions with senior Kyle VanArsdall winning the men’s 1-meter with a mark of 295.35 and All-American Barb Gorst claiming the women’s with a score of 279.14. Sophomore Jessica Wantz placed second behind Gorst with a score of 263.40. VanArsdall won the 3-meter with a mark of 329.54 and Wantz won the women’s competition with a score of 304.35.
Junior Laura Jo Leininger won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 56.30 and Martinec won the 100-fly on the men’s side with a time of 49.61. Sophomore Jan Minartz won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1:57.81.
The men fell to 3-4 overall on the season while the women are now 6-4. LSU next travels to Tallahassee, Fla., on Jan. 25 to take on Florida State in a non-conference meet at noon.