BATON ROUGE — In what has annually become the biggest meet of the fall season, the LSU swimming and diving team travels to College Station, Texas, this weekend to compete at the Texas A&M Invitational.
The Tigers were last in action at Florida State and Florida International in October. The Seminoles defeated both the LSU men and women, but the Lady Tiger women were able to earn a victory over FIU.
The squads compete in their first championship competition of the season, which features scoring similar to the SEC and NCAA Championships.
“This is a precursor to those championships,” said head coach Adam Schmitt. “It gives our athletes the format to be familiar with and how to prepare for prelims and finals. We are looking forward to getting a lot of second swims at night during the finals. We also want to try to sneak out some (NCAA) qualifying times.”
Events get underway at 10 a.m. Friday with the preliminaries of the 200 freestyle relay. The 500 free, 200 individual medley, 50 free, 1-meter diving and 400 medley relay are also scheduled for Friday. A finals session for each event begins at 6 p.m.
Joining the Tigers will be familiar foes SMU, South Carolina, Houston (women), Tulane (women) and host Texas A&M. Michigan rounds out the seven-team field.
Freshman Julius Gloeckner carries the No. 1 seed into three events this weekend — the most by any swimmer attending the meet.
Gloeckner is seeded first in the 500 free, 200 free and 200 butterfly. The Freiburg, Germany, native will also go into the 200 and 400 individual medley as the No. 2 seed.
Freestyle swimmer Miko Malberg’s time of 20.57 in the 50 free earned the sophomore the top seed in that event. Malberg is also ranked first in the 100 free, which takes place on Sunday.
Kevin Braud is seeded No. 1 in the 100 and 200 backstroke. LSU’s 200 medley relay “A” team carries the top seed into that event with a qualifying clocking of 1:32.40.
Freshman diver Alyson Thomas has only participated in two dual meets but is ranked No. 1 out of the 16 entrees in the women’s 1-meter and 3-meter springboard. The Lady Tigers represent the top four seeds in the 1-meter with Hali Saucier, Ryanne Snyder and Paige Brown following Thomas.
Brown and Saucier are seeded No. 1 and 2 in platform diving. Men’s diver Niko Dalman enters the platform event with a top seed as well.
“My expectations are that the divers compete well and work on the things that we have been working on throughout the early part of the season,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “This is training meet, which means we are going to train more than we would at a peaking championship competition. This will prepare us for later on down the road.”
Shaffer also stressed the importance of competing in a setting similar to the championship season that awaits the Tigers in February and March.
“I want our divers in an adverse condition,” said Shaffer. “I want them to have worked hard and be a little tired. This is definitely a competitive experience.”
Following the A&M meet, LSU hosts the Bengal Tiger Aquatic Club Invitational, Dec. 2-4, at the LSU Natatorium.
2005 Texas A&M Invitational
Nov. 18-20
Student Recreation Center Natatorium
College Station, Texas
Friday’s Schedule of Events
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving
400 Medley Relay
Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. Finals session gets underway at 6 p.m.