BATON ROUGE — Swimmer Julius Gloeckner and gymnast Ashleigh Clare-Kearney were named the LSU Male and Female Athletes of the Week Wednesday following a vote by a local media panel.
Gloeckner, a sophomore from Freiburg, Germany, led No. 25 LSU to an upset win over No. 10 Florida State last Friday contributing three individual victories.
In a meet that came down to the final race, the Tigers needed to take first place in the final two events of the meet — the 200 individual medley and the 200 freestyle relay.
LSU got it when Gloeckner cruised to victory in the 200 IM (1:52.45). With little rest, the sophomore finished off the meet with the final 50 yards of the 200 free relay as the Tigers defeated the Seminoles by nearly two seconds (1:22.30) to pull the upset.
Gloeckner also won the 200 free (1:40.18) and the 200 butterfly (1:49.95) giving LSU its first dual-meet win over a ranked opponent since the Tigers defeated No. 16 during the 2001-02 season.
Clare-Kearney, a native of Manchester, Conn., led the Tigers to victory over Iowa last Friday winning the individual all-around title as well as the beam and vault crowns.
Clare-Kearney tallied a season-high 39.425 in the win, a total that ranks as the second highest in the SEC, and the third best in the nation, this year.
The all-around victory, the first of the season and third of her career, for the 5-4, junior was spearheaded by a near-perfect 9.925 effort on the vault and meet-high 9.850 on the beam. Clare-Kearney also posted runner-up finishes on both the bars and floor as she racked up season-highs of 9.775 and 9.875, respectively.
For her efforts, Clare-Kearney also garnered SEC Gymnast of the Weeks honors as well as top 25 national ranking rankings on the vault and in the all-around.