BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams will make their first road trip of the season when they travel to both Alabama and Florida State this weekend for separate dual meets, beginning Friday at 3 p.m. (CST) in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Following the meet against the Crimson Tide, the squads will trek to Tallahassee, Fla., to face the Seminoles at 1 p.m., Saturday.
The Lady Tigers (1-2, 0-2 SEC), who earned their first victory of the season last Friday against Tulane, will go after their fourth win versus the Crimson Tide in the last five years and their third-straight victory over the Seminoles. In order to be successful, they will need more big performances from team co-captains Jane Trepp and Kannon Betzen and several of their outstanding underclassmen.
Trepp won the 50-yard freestyle against the Green Wave and also claimed first-place in a race she doesn’t normally swim, the 200 breaststroke, while Betzen took first in two of her off-events, the 100 and 200 free, but both figure to return to their stronger races this weekend.
The LSU women will also look for strong efforts from sophomores Mary Beck and Morgan McGee and freshmen Rebecca St. Germain, Sara Haley and Amanda Kendall.
Beck ranks in the conference’s top-five in both the 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley and will potentially play a major role in relays, while McGee holds a top-10 SEC time in the 100 back and also should be a key member of the relay squads.
St Germain, the reigning SEC Female Diver of the Week, is ranked third and fourth in the conference in the three-meter and one-meter diving events, respectively. In addition, the San Antonio, Texas, native could be a part of one of the best battles of the weekend, a matchup with Alabama sophomore and 2009 SEC Diver of the Year, Carrie Dragland.
Haley is currently one of the top 200-butterfly swimmers in the SEC with the second-fastest time in the league (1:58.81), and Kendall is a versatile swimmer who can make an impact in a number of freestyle races, the 100 fly and relays.
The LSU men (0-2, 0-2 SEC) hope to register their first victory of the season. They will also be shooting for their third-consecutive win over the Crimson Tide and fourth straight over the Seminoles.
Co-captains Sean LeNeave and James Meyers, junior Hannes Heyl and freshmen Craig Hamilton and Andrei Tuomola will be critical to the Tigers’ efforts.
LeNeave leads the team in the 200 fly, while Meyers is solid in several stroke disciplines. Heyl ranks in the league’s top-10 in the 100 back and 100 fly. Moreover, all three are valuable contributors on relays.
Hamilton and Tuomola have proven to be two of the best young swimmers in the SEC to this point. Hamilton, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, is undefeated in the 500 and 1000 free this season and will have an opportunity to race some of the premier distance swimmers from their respective conferences in Alabama’s Mark Randall and Florida State’s Ian Rowe. Tuomola has emerged as one of the league’s top sprinters as he ranks fourth in the 50 free (20.53).
Furthermore, men’s divers Brian Gemberling and Matt Vieke will look to tally points for the Tigers. Gemberling, who has already punched his ticket to the NCAA Zone Diving Regional, is seventh in the SEC in the one-meter with his 314.77 score.
Alabama is undefeated this season with six wins in dual-meet competition on the women’s side and three on the men’s side. Florida State also has yet to lose this year as the Seminole women sport a 5-0 record, while the Seminole men bring in a 2-0 mark.
Last season, the LSU men swept both teams in the LSU Natatorium, while the Lady Tigers notched the first tie in school history against the Crimson Tide and captured a victory over the Seminoles.