AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU women’s swimming and diving team finished in 32nd place at the 2003 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn.
The Lady Tigers finished the meet with 17 points and have now finished in the nation’s top 35 every season since 1978. Host Auburn won its second-consecutive national championship by totaling 536 points to finish well ahead of second-place Georgia, who received 373 points. Auburn coasted to the championship after entering the final day of competition with a 127-point lead after Friday’s action.
Junior All-American Stephanie Smith placed 20th in the finals of the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:31.55. SMU sophomore Flavia Rigamonti won the event with a Martin Aquatics Center-record time of 15:43.90. Smith also swam in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday and placed 29th. California’s Natalie Coughlin, who won the 100-yard butterfly on Friday, won the 200-yard backstroke on Saturday with another pool-record time of 1:50.86.
Georgia All-American Maritza Correia won the 100-yard freestyle in an NCAA-record time of 47.29. LSU did not have any participants in the 200-backstroke or 100-freestyle. Senior Cissy Schepens swam the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:15.53 to place 21st in the preliminaries. Stanford’s Tara Kirk won with a pool-record time of 2:08.79. Junior Laura Jo Leininger placed 35th in the prelims of the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:01.90. Georgia freshman Mary DeScenza won with a time of 1:53.51.
Senior All-American Barb Gorst ended her career with a 15th-place finish in the 10-meter platform diving competition. The Calgary, Canada, native earned a score of 372.80. Gorst won the platform at the NCAA Zone B Regional last weekend in Auburn with a score of 471.25. Gorst finished sixth in the platform at last season’s NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. Ohio State’s Natalia Diea won the platform with a score of 476.65.
“Barb (Gorst) did not dive the way she is capable of diving tonight, but a 15th-place finish in the country is not anything to be ashamed of,” said LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer. “I am proud of both Barb and Jessica (Wantz) for their performance here this weekend, they both had excellent seasons and Barb had a great career,” Shaffer said.
Wantz, a sophomore from Houston, placed fourth in the 3-meter finals on Friday evening to earn All-America honors for the first time in her career.
Auburn won the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 3:17.38. Georgia finished in second with a time of 3:17.72. Cal’s Coughlin was the high scorer of the meet with 60 points.
The men’s NCAA Championships will be held March 27-29 in Austin, Texas. Five members of the men’s team will compete.