BATON ROUGE — LSU freshman Morgan McGee enjoyed a superb collegiate debut, swimming a pair of backstroke times ranking among the school’s all-time best in both events, but it wasn’t enough for the Lady Tigers as the fourth-ranked Florida Gators won the dual meet, 185-104, Thursday at the LSU Natatorium.
The Lady Tigers (0-1, 0-1 SEC) will return to action next Thursday, Oct. 30 when the team travels to Fayetteville, Ark., to face the Arkansas Razorbacks in its second Southeastern Conference dual meet. Start time is scheduled for 1 p.m. The Gators improved to 2-1 (1-0 SEC) behind a phenomenal performance from 2008 Olympian Gemma Spofforth, who broke the LSU Natatorium records in both the 100-yard backstroke (53.84 seconds) and 200 backstroke (1:57.26).
“You have to keep everything in perspective of who we’re swimming against,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “Florida is a great team. They are going to be one of the teams to beat in the conference this year.
“This was our first chance to step up in a race, so we had to get the rust out a little bit. We did well and had some good times, but we need to shore up some of the details and improve on some small things that can make us better.”
In the fourth event of the afternoon, McGee entered the pool in Lane 5 for the 100 back and registered a time of 55.50 seconds, the third-fastest mark in program history. The freshman sensation captured runner-up honors in the race behind Spofforth, who holds the SEC record in the event and finished fourth in the 100-meter back in Beijing. The Shreveport, La., native returned to the pool six events later and notched the fifth-fastest mark all-time at LSU in the 200 back, 2:01.12, to place second.
“I’m really excited,” McGee said. “I didn’t expect to go out there and swim a top-three or top-10 time, but I really wanted to do well and capture my personal-best times, which I did in both.”
The Lady Tigers opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The group of Monica McJunkin, Victoria Givens, Katie Gilmore and Katherine Noland recorded a time of 1:45.58 in the race. Senior Vanessa Duenas added three points for the squad, securing third-place in the 200 butterfly. Her time of 2:03.66 is the 10th-fastest mark in the event in school history.
Sophomore Jane Trepp also had a strong meet, giving the Lady Tigers nine points in individual competition, including eight points on a pair of runner-up finishes in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke. In addition, Givens contributed seven points, taking second in the 200 breast and third in the 100 breast.
In diving, freshmen Katie Lybbert and Theresa Garcia competed in their first collegiate meets. Lybbert finished third in the 3-meter springboard with a score of 257.25.