BATON ROUGE — Before LSU and Alabama meet on the gridiron Saturday, the Tigers and Crimson Tide will face one another in the pool as the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams square off at 3 p.m., Friday in the LSU Natatorium.
This year’s matchup continues a long tradition of the two programs dueling the day before the Tigers and Crimson Tide battle it out on the football field. Last season, the LSU teams swept Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the day before the Tigers defeated the Tide, 41-34, in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“We always hold this meet the Friday before the Alabama football game,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “We do that to hopefully get tailgaters, students and other people around campus to come and check out swimming and diving. Many of our fans have never seen a swimming and diving meet, and I think they would be pleasantly surprised to see how entertaining it is.”
The 17th-ranked LSU men (0-1, 0-1 SEC) earned their first victory over the Tide in seven years with last season’s 194-106 victory. The LSU women (0-2, 0-2 SEC) enter this year’s contest having won three consecutive dual meets in the series.
The Lady Tigers hope to rebound after a close defeat at the hands of No. 21 Arkansas last Thursday and will turn to seniors like Katherine Noland to lead the way. Noland is fresh off a sensational performance in which she won all three of her individual races against the Razorbacks. The women’s co-captain registered victories in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyle events and also helped the 400 freestyle relay team take first-place.
Freshman Morgan McGee continues to impress, seizing her first career victories in the 100 and 200 backstrokes versus Arkansas, and senior Vanessa Duenas recorded the fifth-fastest 200-butterfly time in school history and a new personal best, 2 minutes, 1.96 seconds, in Fayetteville, Ark.
The men’s squad returns to action after a two week layoff from dual-meet competition. Senior Connor Farber began the season on a fine note against the fourth-ranked Florida Gators, securing a victory in the 100 freestyle and spearheading the men’s victorious 200 freestyle relay team. Sophomore Hannes Heyl secured a pair of runner-up finishes in backstroke events, and freshman Ben Decker took his first career win in the 100 breaststroke in the season-opener as well.
“I’m looking for leadership out of our seniors,” Schmitt added. “We have some freshman standouts as well. Morgan McGee and Katherine Noland have been swimming really well these past two weeks.
“On the men’s side, we are going to lean heavily on our All-Americans and seniors and see what we can do.”
In diving, senior Niko Dalman and junior Rachel Ware, two of the SEC’s top returning men’s and women’s divers, have gotten off to nice starts. Dalman currently holds the top one-meter springboard score in the conference, 346.72, and Ware’s top scores in both the one-meter (288.23) and three-meter (300.45) rank in the SEC’s top five.
Admission to all swimming and diving meets is free, and the program would like to welcome all LSU students, fans and early tailgaters to the LSU Natatorium for some exciting swimming and diving action between two Southeastern Conference rivals. The complex is located on the corner of Nicholson Drive and W. Chimes Street next to the Carl Maddox Field House.