BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams fell to South Carolina in the 2003-04 home opener Friday evening at the LSU Natatorium.
The LSU men lost 133-110, while the LSU women were defeated 144-96. The Gamecocks won 15-of-24 events, dominating the women’s freestyle events.
“It is a disappointing loss, ” said associate head coach Lars Jorgensen. “It is always disappointing to lose, but we did a lot of things better than we have been doing. There definitely were some positives out there that will help us next semester.”
Senior Matt Rucker was a double-winner Friday night. Rucker, a 2003 All-American in the 200 medley relay, won the 50 freestyle with a time of 20.75. The River Ridge, La. native later returned to the pool to capture the 100 breaststroke in 56.84 seconds. Chris Stanczyk won the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.70. Other Tiger winners of note included Neil Lowe in the 100 butterfly (50.17) and Jared Strecker in the 100 backstroke (51.60). The LSU relay team of Ross Hebert, Jan Minartz, Robbie Moon and Chris Stanczyk defeated South Carolina’s “A” team in the 200 freestyle relay, touching the wall at 1:23.84.
Lauren Harvey and Lindsay Staak once again led the LSU women. Both Harvey and Staak each picked up their third individual wins of the season. Harvey won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.40, while Staak was victorious in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.01. The two also joined Heather Brand and Bethany Cottingham to win the 200 medley relay in 1:46.51.
In diving, Hali Saucier was the only Lady Tiger diver to compete. On the men’s side freshman Adam Hebert finished third in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competition with scores of 270.67 and 300.82.
“I saw a lot of improvement,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “Hali was out there by herself tonight and she did a great job. Adam Hebert also dove his heart out tonight.”
The dual meet versus South Carolina was only the fifth contest for four freshmen divers. “I put a lot of pressure on them this week,” said Shaffer. “They have never been in this position before, at a home meet against one of the best teams in the conference.”
The LSU swimmers return to action in two weeks when they travel to the Nike Cup Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C. the weekend of Nov. 20-22. The Tiger divers will head to Minneapolis, Minn. to compete at the Minnesota Diving Invitational Nov. 21-23.