BATON ROUGE — Head coach Adam Schmitt now has one meet under his belt following Friday’s double-dual meet featuring his Tigers, Alabama and Arkansas. The LSU women earned a split, defeating Arkansas, 73-60, before falling to Alabama, 80-53. The LSU men dropped to 0-1 as the Crimson Tide flexed its muscle to defeat the Tigers, 171-111.
“It was huge to finally get going,” said Schmitt. “I am so glad and excited to be back in the SEC, the best conference in the world.”
LSU captured three swimming events on the day, which included a sweep of the 400 freestyle relay. The women’s team of Colleen Bertirotti, Mallory Neltner, Heather Brand and Margaret Anne Moore took first place with a time of 3:32.67.
It was soon followed up by the LSU men’s team of Miko Malberg, Ryan Ashby, Jared Strecker and Jan Minartz. The group took first place with a mark of 3:06.78, just ahead of Alabama’s “A” squad. Earlier, Strecker held on to capture the 200-butterfly in 1:54.55.
“We had a lot of enthusiasm today, especially in those last races,” said Schmitt. “I am proud of this team not only in the pool but the way they cheered on their teammates and got the crowd into it. That is one of the things we are trying to establish here, a new team behavior with a new mentality.”
Alabama was led by Anne Poleska and Vlad Polyakov as both won three events on the day, while sweeping all four breaststroke heats.
Polyakov shattered the LSU Natatorium men’s 100 breaststroke record with a lightning swim of 53.63,breaking Jarrod Marrs mark of 54.62 set in 1999.
Poleska also got into the record-breaking mix, swimming a time of 2:10.64 in the 200 breaststroke, also an LSU Natatorium record. The former record, 2:13.64, was previously owned by Georgia’s Ashley Roby set in 2001.
In diving, LSU stood above all, taking three of the four diving events led by Adam Hebert, who dove the best performance of his career.
Hebert, a sophomore from Baton Rouge, won the men’s 1-meter with an NCAA zone qualifying score of 317.95. It was also a career-high, taking over his previous best score of 301.20 set against Florida State last season.
“Adam’s performance was outstanding and was definitely the best of career,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “Even though our championship isn’t until next spring, you can use this type of performance as a benchmark for the rest of the season and Adam showed that with his NCAA qualifying score.”
The Tigers swept the women’s diving events when Hali Saucier and Jessica Wantz were victorious in the 1-meter and 3-meter, respectively.
Saucier won the 1-meter with a mark of 261.45, while Wantz captured the 3-meter with a score of 289.00.
“Hali really came through despite suffering from a back injury,” said Shaffer. “It really shows her competitive nature and the kind of person she is.”
LSU will face its first road test when both the swimming and diving squads compete in invitationals in the state of Texas, Nov. 19-21. The swimmers will participate in the Texas A&M Invitational, while the divers face off at the Houston Invitational.