BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams split with conference-rival Kentucky on Saturday at the LSU Natatorium in the final home meet of the season.
The Lady Tigers defeated Kentucky, 177-114, and improved their overall record to 9-4 ending the dual-conference season at 2-3 while the men’s team lost to the Wildcats, 165-123, and finish the dual-meet season at 5-6 and 0-4 in the SEC.
The Lady Tigers won 13 of 16 events in the meet and had six double-winners. Junior All-American Stephanie Smith broke her own pool record (16:42.41) in the 1650-yard freestyle by nearly four seconds to win the event with a time of 16:38.73. Smith’s time qualified as a “B” cut for the 2003 NCAA Championships of which she has already qualified for with an “A” cut back in November at the Nike Cup.
Smith also won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:55.66. Senior Julie Johnson won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle with a time of 24.13 in the 50-free and 52.71 in the 100. Sophomore Lindsay Staak won the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, winning the 100- in 56.07 and swam the 200 in 2:05.33. Senior Cissy Schepens won the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke. She swam the 100 in 1:04.94 and the 200 in 2:18.46.
Junior Laura Jo Leininger won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.75 and the 200-fly in a time of 2:04.61. Sophomore Jessica Wantz won both the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions with a score of 267.53 in the 1-meter and a 302.85 mark in the 3-meter. LSU’s team of Leininger, Staak, Johnson and Schepens also won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.61.
Junior All-American Evan Martinec had possibly the best meet of his career by winning three events to lead LSU in men’s action. The junior from Tacoma, Wash., won the 100 and 200-yard backstroke as well as the 100-yard butterfly. Martinec swam the 100-backstroke in 49.06, the 200 in 1:52.25 and the 100-fly in 49.07. Sophomore Myles Jaunes won the 1650-freestyle with a time of 16:08.56.
Martinec teamed with Francisco Paez, Mike Jotautas and Matt Rucker to win the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:30.48. Senior Kyle VanArsdall placed second behind Kentucky All-American Clayton Moss in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events.
LSU honored 11 seniors prior to the meet and two of those, Schepens and Johnson, made their last home meet memorable by winning two events apiece.
Next up for LSU is the 2003 Southeastern Conference Championships in Auburn, Ala., from Feb. 19-22.