BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams fell to Florida State in the final home meet of the year Saturday afternoon at the LSU Natatorium.
The LSU men (2-6) gave the 24th-ranked Seminoles all they could handle but fell short by one point, 122-121. The LSU women (3-6) dropped their third consecutive contest, losing to the 18th-ranked Seminole women, 137-100.
Florida State captured 14-of-26 events on the day. The Seminole men led by nine points heading into the 20th event of the day, the 500-yard freestyle. In a pivotal outcome, the ‘Noles captured first, second and fourth place in the event to stretch their lead to 20.
The Tigers would not go away quietly, winning the final three men’s events. Freshman Adam Hebert won the 1-meter diving competition (301.20) in the 22nd event of the day. Christian Clausen then stepped into the pool in the 200-yard breaststroke and the junior did not disappoint. Clausen swam the fastest time of the season in the respective event to finish first and earn nine points to the Tigers’ final tally.
“That was an awesome swim Christian had,” said LSU associate head coach Lars Jorgensen. “He really came out of nowhere, considering that was the first time he had swam that event since his leg injury. He really stepped it up with that great performance.”
The LSU men would close out the 400-yard freestyle relay, taking first and third place to finish with 121 points. Led by a trio of seniors participating in their final home meet, LSU’s “A” team of Neil Lowe, Evan Martinec, Jan Minartz and Chris Stanczyk won the event in a season-best time of 3:03.16.
Senior Stephanie Smith closed out her final home meet with two more victories on Saturday. Smith won the 1000-yard freestyle for the second-consecutive day, overwhelming the competition in a time of 10:03.58. She would later capture the 500-freestyle (4:57.90), holding off teammate Hannah Martin.
Chris Stanczyk, also in his final competition at the LSU Natatorium, won the 200-yard freestyle in a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:39.00. Stanczyk had already previously qualified for the event during the Nike Cup Invitational.
“I thought Chris had a pretty solid, all-around meet, and we need to keep this going in three weeks at SEC’s,” said Jorgensen.
Justin Boyes swam a season-best time to win the 200-yard individual medley (1:52.99), while Jared Strecker captured the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.84). Evan Martinec gave one last impression to the LSU Natatorium crowd as the All-American won the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:47.84.
“Justin has been really coming on lately,” said LSU assistant coach Amanda Norton. “He has been training great and working really hard. We definitely are counting on him in the coming weeks.”
In diving, the talented Tiger duo of Andrew Keane and Andy Crum took first and second-place honors in the 3-meter. Keane won the event with a mark of 287.85. Florida State won both women’s diving events.
“We learned some things today in a very competitive environment,” said LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer. “Andrew Keane and Adam Hebert gave us some very impressive individual performances.”
LSU returns to action on February 28 when both squads head to the SEC Championships in Athens, Ga. The prestigious four-day event will be a preview of the NCAA Championships, which begin on March 18.
“We have set the foundation for everything we have done up to this point,” said Shaffer. “We are looking ahead to SEC’s, the NCAA Zones and the National Championships from here. I feel the framework is set for us to compete well at all of them.”
NOTES: Seven seniors were honored during Senior Day festivities including Donna Leslie, Cackey Miltenberger, Stephanie Smith, Neil Lowe, Evan Martinec, Robbie Moon and Chris Stanczyk … Saturday’s meet marked the return of former LSU All-American and two-time Olympian Neil Harper, the current head coach at Florida State.