BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams continue their January home slate at 1 p.m. (CST), Saturday against the Delta State Statesmen in the LSU Natatorium.
In addition to the competition, the program will also honor all 19 seniors prior to the meet. Senior Day festivities will begin at approximately 12:30 p.m.
LSU head coach Adam Schmitt regards this class as a special group because many of these seniors comprise the first recruiting class he assembled at LSU. Furthermore, this particular group has accounted for nine individual school records and has collected 16 NCAA All-America honors.
“This is an exciting moment for the seniors,” Schmitt said. “This has been a great group who has helped propel the swimming and diving program to top-20 status. I am proud of these seniors, and they truly deserve the recognition from the coaches, fans, parents and athletic administration.”
The 18th-ranked men’s team (4-1) has won four straight dual meets and moved up one spot in the latest College Swim Coaches Association of America poll Thursday after beating a pair of nationally-ranked squads in Kentucky and Florida State. The Lady Tigers (3-2-1) have also been on a roll as of late, capturing three consecutive dual-meet decisions.
The Tigers received outstanding performances from the senior trio of Julius Gloeckner, Niko Dalman and Christoph Lubenau and sophomore Hannes Heyl to surge past No. 18 Florida State and No. 24 Kentucky last week.
Gloeckner registered five victories during the week and delivered the knockout blow to the Seminoles with his win in the 200-yard individual medley. Dalman swept the springboard events in both contests and tallied the second-highest one-meter score in program history against the Wildcats, 357.68.
Lubenau secured the 100-butterfly title in each dual meet, including a critical victory against Florida State in which he swam past the ACC’s premier 100-fly performer, Jarryd Botha, with a season-best time of 48.65 seconds. Heyl recorded a pair of wins versus Florida State in the 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle and took the 100 back in the dual-meet victory over Kentucky.
Spearheaded by seniors Vanessa Duenas and Katherine Noland, the Lady Tigers also held off Kentucky and Florida State. Duenas showed off her versatility with back-to-back victories in the 200 IM and wins in the 200 breaststroke and 200 fly last week, while Noland tallied four victories in the short-distance freestyle races.
The women’s team also emerged victorious in all four relay events last week, and freshman Morgan McGee swam to victory in three backstroke events.
Moreover, freshman divers Chelsea McCorvey and Brian Gemberling punched their tickets to the NCAA Zone Diving Regional in March as each tallied a qualifying score in the one-meter against Kentucky.