AUSTIN, Texas — The LSU men’s swimming and diving team improved 16 places on Friday at the 2003 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships at the Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center in Austin and broke two more school records in the process.
The Tigers, 32nd after Thursday’s action with just 14 points, moved into a tie for 16th place with Texas A&M. LSU currently has 53 points while Auburn has a comfortable lead in the meet with 449 points. Host Texas is a distant second with 282 points. LSU broke the school record in the 200-yard medley relay on Friday and All-American Evan Martinec broke his own school record in the 100-yard backstroke. The Tigers also broke the school record in the 400-yard medley relay on Thursday.
LSU’s team of Martinec, Mike Jotautas, Matthew Rucker, and Francisco Paez broke the school record in the 200 with a time of 1:27.81 in the preliminaries and then placed eighth in the finals with a time of 1:28.22, earning All-American distinction for the eighth-place finish. The previous school record was 1:28.18 set in 2000. Texas won the 200 with an NCAA-record time of 1:24.46.
Martinec, a junior from Tacoma, Wash., earned All-America honors for the third-consecutive season and fifth time in his career with a sixth-place finish in the finals of the 100-yard backstroke, swimming a time of 47.16. He held the previous record of 46.98 which he swam earlier this season at the 2003 Southeastern Conference Championships. Stanford’s Peter Marshall won the event with a time of 45.57.
Martinec was an All-American in the 100-backstroke and 200-yard individual medley as a freshman in 2001 and again in the 100 backstroke last season. He earned two more All-America honors on Friday in the backstroke and 200 medley relay.
Senior Kyle Van Arsdall placed 22nd in the preliminaries of the 10-meter platform diving with a score of 475.20. Tennessee All-American Phillip Jones won with a score of 649.70. Rucker finished 34th in the prelims of the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.69. Texas junior Brendan Hansen won with an NCAA-record time of 51.96.
Arizona freshman Simon Burnett won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:33.69. Texas junior Ian Crocker won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 45.67. Georgia sophomore Robert Margalis won the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:39.92, and Texas won the 800-yard freestyle relay in a time of 6:18.62. LSU did not have any participants in any of those events.
“We are continuing to move up and that is great for our team,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “We had some great swims today, breaking two more school records, and I am very proud of our guys right now.”
The championships concludes on Saturday with seven events. Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m. with finals starting at 7 p.m. Preliminaries in the platform diving competition begin at 1 p.m.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Sat. March 29
1650-yard freestyle
200-yard backstroke
100-yard freestyle
200-yard breaststroke
200-yard butterfly
Platform Diving
400-yard freestyle relay