BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will continue their early season home slate Friday at 2:30 p.m. (CT) when they welcome SEC rival Auburn to the LSU Natatorium.
This will be the first official competition of the season for Auburn, who will bring in the defending national champions on the men’s side and a women’s squad that finished sixth nationally last season.
“It’s always exciting to go up against a team the caliber of Auburn,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “Their men’s team is the defending national champions, and their women are always perennial championship contenders. We’re going in looking to build on our performance against Tennessee, and we hope to continue improving our times and scores in the early season.
“Obviously, the upcoming LSU and Auburn football game will generate lots of excitement this weekend, and we encourage fans and tailgaters to come check out our meet before they get ready for the big game on Saturday.”
The LSU teams opened the season on a strong note against Tennessee last weekend, posting a new school record, several NCAA provisional time standards and multiple program top-10 marks.
Sophomore Mary Beck spearheaded the Lady Tigers (0-1, 0-1 SEC) versus Tennessee with a stellar effort that earned her Counsilman Hunsaker National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week honors from CollegeSwimming.com. The Austin, Texas, native swam to a program record and NCAA ?B’ cut time of 1 minute, 57.45 seconds to take first-place in the 200-yard backstroke.
She also captured first in the 200 individual medley with another NCAA provisional mark and the second-fastest time in school history, 2:01.77, and won the 200 freestyle (1:50.03). Her times in the 200 back and 200 I.M. currently rank in the top-five in the nation.
The Tigers (0-1, 0-1 SEC) were led by dynamic freshmen Andrei Tuomola and Craig Hamilton, who swept their individual events.
Tuomola was recognized as the SEC Male Freshman of the Week for his efforts as the Finnish product came away with victories in the 50 free (20.62) and 100 free (45.16) and played a critical role on the team’s victorious 200 medley and 400 free relays. Hamilton swam to victory in both the 500 and 1000 free. His time of 9:23.19 in the 1000 free placed him fifth in program annals.
Fellow freshmen Rebecca St. Germain, Sara Haley and Amanda Kendall also emerged with fine efforts against Tennessee.
St. Germain claimed first-place in both springboard diving events and qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Regional en route to SEC Female Freshman of the Week honors. The San Antonio, Texas, native tallied the 10th-best one-meter score in school history, 285.14, and registered a mark of 298.13 in the three-meter.
Haley came away with the second-fastest 200-butterfly time in program history with a blistering NCAA ?B’ cut mark of 1:58.81, which is the fastest time in the country thus far this season. Kendall delivered runner-up finishes in the 50, 100 and 200 free.
In addition, freshman Jana Ruimerman recorded a solid time of 2:01.21 in the 200 back, the eighth-best mark all-time at LSU.
The Auburn men return seven NCAA champions and nine SEC champions from last season’s national championship squad, while the women’s team features seven returning All-Americans and six conference champions.
The LSU Natatorium is located on the corner of Nicholson Drive and W. Chimes Street next to the Carl Maddox Field House. Admission to the meet is free.