CLEVELAND, Miss. — Looking for their first wins of the season, the LSU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept Delta State and went 1-1 against Southwest Missouri State Saturday at the DSU Aquatics Center in Cleveland, Miss.
The LSU women handily defeated the Delta State women 100-12, and then earned their second victory of the day by knocking off Southwest Missouri State, 66-47. The LSU men captured a 92-21 victory versus the home-team Statesmen, and then fell to Southwest Missouri State 58-55.
The Lady Tigers won 8 of the 13 women’s events on the day, sweeping both relays and both diving events. Junior Jessica Wantz returned to her sophomore form placing first in the 1-meter (271.75) and 3-meter (289.30). The group of Lindsay Staak, Lauren Harvey, Heather Brand and Colleen Bertirotti won the first event of the day, the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:47.18. Bertirotti, competing in just the fourth meet of her brief career, would return the water and earn her first individual win, swimming the 50-yard freestyle in 24.23.
Margaret Beadle held off Southwest Missouri’s Marcy O’Neal to win the 200-yard freestyle in 1:56.20. Other Lady Tiger winners of note include Heather Brand in the 100-yard butterfly (58.22) and Lindsay Staak in the 100-yard backstroke for the second consecutive day (57.61).
The men won six events on Saturday with two of those victories coming from freestyle swimmer Jan Minartz. The junior standout finished first in both the 100-yard freestyle (9:35.18) and 500-yard freestyle (4:37.65). Minartz earned his third first-place finish in two days. Freshman Adam Hebert picked up his first individual win, capturing both diving events. Neil Lowe finished first in the 100-yard butterfly (50.65) and Justin Boyes touched the wall ahead of the Bears’ Ramiro Palmer in the 200-yard IM (1:54.43).
The Tigers were just two events away from sweeping both teams on Saturday. Heading into the final two men’s events, Southwest Missouri put together two impressive swims in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle relay to hold off LSU.
The men and women will return to action Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. in the first home meet of the year, hosting South Carolina in another SEC dual-meet.