BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s swimming team defeated its third straight opponent with a convincing 109.5-74.5 victory over UNO Friday at the LSU Natatorium.
The Lady Tigers (5-4) improved to 6-0 all-time against the Privateers. LSU collected first-place times in the first four events before UNO won the 200 butterfly. Several swimmers were able to compete in events they do not normally participate in.
“It helped us to see what other events people can swim down the road,” said head coach Adam Schmitt. “We had some good swims and were able to earn some experience.”
Schmitt also praised UNO for competing in the meet following the tumultuous months in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“I really have to complement UNO,” said Schmitt. “It was good to help them out and allow them to compete against us.”
After winning the 200 medley relay, LSU jumped out to an impressive lead in the 1000 freestyle led by Lauren Simons. Simons would knock five seconds off of her previous-best time to win the race in a season-fast time of 10:46.48. Fellow freshman Angela Jurma also swam a career-high in the event with a second-place clocking of 11:07.42.
The Lady Tigers then earned a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 free with a winning swim by Monica McJunkin (1:57.01) and second and third-place finishes by Clare Schepens (1:57.04) and Mallory Neltner (1:58.90).
Four other freshman also gathered wins on Friday, including Katie Gilmore in the 50 free (24.12), Sabrina Messmer in the 100 free (53.94), Berit Aljand in the 200 backstroke (2:05.81) and Sarah Bedell in the 200 breaststroke (2:25.97).
Colleen Bertirotti returned to her winning form in the 200 individual medley, touchin g the wall at 2:11.10. Katy Leininger also had a first-place finish in the 500 free (5:14.17).
The entire team returns to action tomorrow at noon against non-conference rival Texas A&M. The 16-event meet begins with Senior Day festivities at the LSU Natatorium. Admission is free.
“It will be a different level tomorrow,” said Schmitt. “There will be more excitement with Senior Day going on, so we need to have more spark and more focus against Texas A&M.”