BATON ROUGE — With the SEC Championships less than a month away, the LSU swimming and diving team continues its preparations with a pair of dual meets versus UNO and Texas A&M this weekend at the LSU Natatorium.
The Lady Tigers host UNO at 2 p.m. Friday. The meet, originally scheduled for 4 p.m., has been moved up two hours to accommodate the Privateers’ travel plans.
Saturday’s noon dual with the Aggies begins with Senior Day festivities, as six swimmers will be honored before the first event. Heather Brand, Hannah Martin, Jenna Molinski, Rachel Taylor, Ryan Ashby and Matt Coenen are scheduled to participate.
“The seniors had a bigger challenge this year by helping to lead a young team,” said head coach Adam Schmitt. “After the year of transition, they really embraced the new program and are helping us to build it and move forward. They have all done a great job.”
LSU is coming off a very successful weekend on separate road trips. The women’s team swept Rice and Houston, while the men’s squad won all 13 events in its dual with Delta State. The Lady Tigers moved to 4-4 in duals on the season.
“It’s the last meet for the men coming off a good performance last weekend,” added Schmitt. “I am looking for them to improve upon that and bring it to a top level team like Texas A&M. They are certainly a good team, and we look forward to the challenge of racing them.”
Freshman Katherine Noland picked up an NCAA “B” cut time in the 100 freestyle (50.93) in the triumph at Houston. Noland was also instrumental in helping the Tigers to a provisional time in the 200 free relay (1:33.69).
Successes continued in men’s 1-meter diving as all three divers earned season-high marks in the 1-meter at Delta State.
Schmitt suspects a few more NCAA provisional clockings may be gathered this weekend and in the coming weeks.
“It’s the time of year when things are starting to gel,” said Schmitt. “These competitive meets are all part of a bigger picture of getting ready for the SEC meet. All of our times and cuts are geared for that meet.”
The Aggie men (2-4) enter the meet after a dominating performance at the UC-Irvine Relays, Jan. 6-8. They own wins on the season over UC-Santa Barbara and Northwestern.
The 13th-ranked Texas A&M women (7-3) face Tulane on Friday night before making the trip to Baton Rouge. The Aggies are coming off a pair of tough losses to No. 8 SMU and No. 10 Texas.
Saturday’s dual marks the completion of the men’s season schedule before the SEC Championships, Feb. 15-18. The LSU women are slated to host Tulane on Feb. 3 at home.
Meet results will be available on LSUsports.net after each meet.