BATON ROUGE — Senior Julius Gloeckner won two races, and the Lady Tigers’ 400-yard freestyle relay squad broke the LSU Natatorium record Friday to pace the LSU swimming and diving teams ahead of the competition on the first day of the LSU Invitational.
The 17th-ranked men’s team emerged victorious in eight of nine events to jump out to a commanding 137-47 lead over the University of New Orleans. The Lady Tigers hit their stride in the second half of the session to break away from Houston, Rice and UNO with one day remaining in the competition.
“We started out a little sluggish today, particularly on the women’s side,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “We needed to get moving a little bit toward the end there to make sure we came away with a nice lead. I’m hoping tomorrow we’ll start the way we finished.”
Gloeckner continued to be the Tigers’ key performer as he has been over the team’s recent stretch, capturing victories in the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley.
The Lady Tigers’ foursome of Sabrina Messmer, Morgan McGee, Katie Gilmore and Katherine Noland wrapped up the opening session with a new pool record in the 400 freestyle relay, 3:24.24.
In addition, senior Lauren Simons enjoyed arguably the finest moment of her career, swimming the top time of the afternoon in the 1000 free with a personal best of 10:09.58. That mark is the sixth-fastest in the school history and the team’s top time of the season.
Noland and sophomore Kannon Betzen also contributed key victories for the Lady Tigers. Noland secured first-place in the 50 free (23.45), while Betzen swam to victory in the 200 IM with a time of 2:06.28.
Sophomore Luis Gonzalez showed he’s rounding into form for the SEC Championships in three weeks, improving his season best in the 1000 freestyle for the second consecutive meet with a time of 9 minutes, 22.23 seconds to take first-place.
Furthermore, senior Niko Dalman recorded a win in the men’s one-meter springboard with a six-dive total of 353.60. Freshmen Brian Gemberling and Matt Vieke followed in second and third, respectively, to give the Tigers a 1-2-3 finish.
Sophomore Eric Zeller had his best meet of the season, swimming a career best 20.28 seconds in the 50 free, which was the best mark of the day and the team’s fastest official time of the season. Juniors Sean LeNeave and Nate Telep also earned wins, registering first-place finishes in the 200 freestyle and 200 breaststroke, respectively.
The LSU Invitational will resume Saturday at 11 a.m. (CST).
LSU Invitational ? Day 1 Results
Men’s Competition
LSU 137, UNO 47
Women’s Competition
LSU 136, Rice 44
LSU 102, Houston 83
LSU 149, UNO 30
Rice 95, UNO 88
Rice 139.50, UNO 34.50
Houston 130, UNO 51
Saturday ? Schedule of Events
400-yard Medley Relay
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Butterfly
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Breaststroke
Women’s One-meter Diving
Men’s Three-meter Diving
100-yard Freestyle
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle Relay