BATON ROUGE — Fresh off of its SEC dual meet versus Florida, the LSU swimming and diving team splits squads to take on Houston, Rice and Delta State this weekend.
The women’s team travels to Houston to face the Cougars and Rice in a two-day, double dual at the UH Campus Recreation Center beginning at 4 p.m. Friday. Events resume at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
The men’s squad continues its schedule in Cleveland, Miss., against Delta State at 2 p.m. Saturday.
For the Tigers, it will be their third meet in seven days. LSU hosted Florida on Thursday, nearly a week after the team faced Alabama and Kentucky in Tuscaloosa. The divers competed in Athens last weekend for the three-day Georgia Invitational.
“We have a month ago until our championship season begins,” said head coach Adam Schmitt. “This is the time of year where you race two to three meets in a matter of a week. It is all part of the process that leads up to the SEC Championships, which is a four-day event.”
The busy and competitive schedule has given LSU a chance to get into a rhythm after an unconventional fall semester following the aftermath of two hurricanes.
“The fall semester was irregular for us since finals were pushed back,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “It took us out of our holiday training. The meet at Georgia was more of a learning experience. We weren’t as ready.”
On the women’s side, LSU holds a 21-3 all-time advantage against the Owls and is 19-5 versus Houston. The Lady Tigers have won 19 out of the last 20 combined meetings between the two. LSU has not lost to the Cougars since the 1989-90 season.
Houston carries a four-meet winning streak into the weekend and features the Conference USA Diver of the Week in Anastasia Pozdniakova. Rice is 4-2 on the season with its recent victory at Northern Arizona on Monday.
The men own a 2-1 all-time record versus Delta State. LSU defeated the Statesmen 95-42 in Baton Rouge last season.