BATON ROUGE — On June 22, 2004, Adam Schmitt was named head coach of the LSU swimming and diving team. Now, four months later, Schmitt and his staff open their inaugural season as LSU takes on Alabama and Arkansas at 3 p.m. Friday from the LSU Natatorium.
Schmitt, a native of Houston, Texas, takes over a men’s and women’s team that will look to improve on its combined 4-15 dual record in 2003-04.
“I am looking forward to this, to see how this team responds and to see if we are up to the task to race,” said Schmitt. “Right away, this is a benchmark for the season, to see where we are at and to see where we will go from here.”
Alabama travels to Baton Rouge in what will be their season-opener as well. Last year, the Crimson Tide swept both the LSU men and women in Tuscaloosa.
Arkansas, who only carries a women’s team, will face LSU before traveling to New Orleans for a double-dual meet against Tulane and UNO on Saturday.
The LSU women will be counted heavily upon on seven seniors, including Lindsay Staak and Lauren Harvey. Harvey is coming off of a terrific junior season, one where she posted two top times on LSU’s all-time top 10 leaderboard.
Staak, a native of Duluth, Ga., still owns the school record in the 100 backstroke, an event she will look to dominate in 2004.
Adding to the mix will be sophomore Colleen Bertirotti, who had one of the more memorable freshman campaign in school history. Bertirotti was arguably the Tigers best sprint freestyle swimmer as she posted the seventh best time in school history in the 50 free, 23.64, at the SEC Championships.
On the men’s side, the Tigers return a talented squad including two All-Americans, Ross Hebert and Christian Clausen.
Clausen came on strong towards the end of the 2004 season and made an immediate impact in several breaststroke events. The Trelleborg, Sweden native jumped into the top-10 of the 100 and 200 breaststroke events with quality swims at last season’s SEC Championships.
Clausen also joined Hebert and former Tigers Evan Martinec and Neil Lowe to place 10th overall in the 200 medley relay at the 2004 NCAA Championships.
Hebert, after the first All-America honor of his career, will be counted heavily upon in sprint freestyle events. The Raceland, La. native recorded the second fastest time (20.27) in the 50 free in 2004.
“It is ultimately going to be a team effort if we are going to be successful,” said Schmitt. “Everyone has to do their part in order for this team to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
In diving, coach Doug Shaffer returns five letterwinners, including Jessica Wantz who looks to close out her LSU career with a promising finish.
Wantz captured the second and third All-America honors of her career at the 2004 NCAA Championships. Talented sophomores Hali Saucier and Alyson Carlyon, as well as freshman Paige Brown will give the Tigers an edge on opponents in the 2004-05 season.
“We are fired up and looking forward to Friday,” said Shaffer. “There is a lot of energy building with tremendous opportunity for the athletes to prove themselves.”
The men return sophomores Andrew Keane and Ross Hebert and will welcome talented freshman Niko Dalman to the group this season.
Dalman, a four-time high school All-American, is the fourth Tiger diver on the roster to hail from the state of Washington.
“The younger divers are really excited about this first opportunity,” said Shaffer. “The goal of this meet is to go in there and sweep every event. If we do the best we can, we can’t lose because they have risen to the occasion already.”
Friday’s meet will be the only dual meet of the fall season. They will next be in action, Nov. 19-21, when the swimmers compete at the Texas A&M Invitational. The divers will take part in the Houston Diving Invitational.