GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The year was 1988 when Adam Schmitt last wore the purple and gold at the SEC Championships, leading to the Tigers to their only conference title as a 50 freestyle champion. Now, 17 years later, Schmitt will coach the very team he competed for as the LSU swimming team competes at the 2005 SEC Championships, which get underway from the University of Florida’s O’Connell Center Wednesday morning.
Schmitt, in his first season as head coach of the Tigers, leads a confident group into the four-day event. On the women’s side, LSU will count on quality swims from Colleen Bertirotti, Lindsay Staak, Heather Brand and Lauren Harvey. All four have SEC Championship experience and each was a top LSU finisher in an event last year.
On the men’s side, freshman Miko Malberg will make his first SEC Championships appearance. Christian Clausen will participate in breaststroke events, and Jan Minartz will close out his final SEC Championships in several distance freestyle events.
Wednesday’s schedule will feature the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay. Preliminaries of each event are slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET with a finals session to follow at 5:30 p.m. ET.
The LSU divers wrapped up their portion of the championships this past weekend. The women’s team accumulated 57 points to post the conference’s fourth-highest mark. Sophomore Hali Saucier highlighted the weekend, qualifying for all three finals. The men’s team finished with 18 points.