BATON ROUGE — After a stellar LSU dual-meet debut Saturday versus Tennessee, sophomore swimmer Mary Beck earned the Counsilman Hunsaker National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week honors, CollegeSwimming.com announced Tuesday.
In addition to Beck, a pair of LSU freshmen also received weekly honors on Tuesday. Freestyle sprinter Andrei Tuomola and diver Rebecca St. Germain were named the Southeastern Conference Male and Female Freshman of the Week, respectively.
“Anytime an LSU athlete attains national recognition such as this, it is truly exciting for Mary, the team, my staff and the university,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “This is quite an honor for Mary, Becca, Andrei and the LSU program with these early performances.
“It confirms that our season has started in a positive direction and that we can take away an excitement about the future and can continue to build on top of these types of awards. To have such great performances from our young team bodes well not only for the rest of this season but also future seasons.”
A transfer from California, Beck burst onto the scene with three wins, a school-record mark and a pair of NCAA provisional time standards against the Lady Volunteers in the Lady Tigers’ first dual meet of the season.
The former two-time National High School Female Swimmer of the Year swam to victory in the 200-yard backstroke with a new program mark and NCAA ?B’ cut time of 1 minute, 57.45 seconds. She also recorded another NCAA provisional mark in her victory in the 200 individual medley, registering the second-fastest time in school history, 2:01.77, and emerged victorious in the 200 freestyle (1:50.03).
Both of the transfer’s times in the 200 back and 200 I.M. are ranked in the top-five in the country.
Tuomola, a highly-touted international product from Haarajoki, Finland, captured victories in both of his races against the Volunteers last Friday and played a pivotal role on a pair of victorious relay squads. The freshman came away with wins in the 50 free (20.62) and 100 free (45.16) and spearheaded a victory in the 400 free relay with a lead-off split of 45.14.
St. Germain swept the springboard diving events and qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Regional in March in her first official competition. The San Antonio, Texas, native tallied 285.14 points in the one-meter, the 10th-best total in program annals, and notched a winning score of 298.13 in the three-meter.
“That’s fantastic news for Becca,” LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “She’s done a great job and has really worked hard all year long. She has tremendous talent and potential, and she has a promising future ahead of her.”
Fans can see the LSU swimming and diving teams in action this Friday at 2:30 p.m. (CT) when they welcome perennial powerhouse Auburn to the LSU Natatorium. Admission to the competition is free.