BATON ROUGE — The LSU swimming and diving teams will kick off the 2010-11 season this weekend with back-to-back days of competition on the road against Southeastern Conference foes Auburn and Alabama.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will face Auburn Friday at 3 p.m. (CT), while the Lady Tigers also duel Notre Dame in the James E. Martin Aquatics Center. LSU will then trek to Tuscaloosa to take on the Crimson Tide Saturday at 1 p.m., in the Alabama Aquatic Center.
Auburn is providing live results on Friday, and Alabama will be video streaming the Tigers-Crimson Tide meet live on Saturday. Links to both can be accessed on www.LSUsports.net.
“We are looking forward to getting our first competitions under our belts,” head swimming coach David Geyer said. “Competing against SEC opponents now will only help us when it comes time to compete at our championship meet in February. “The teams are energized for the weekend and believe we can get up there and not only compete, but come out of the weekend with great battles in the water and some victories.”
The Lady Tigers returns three NCAA All-Americans — Jane Trepp, Amanda Kendall and Samantha Goates — and 15 letterwinners from last year’s squad.
Trepp, who holds seven school records, has already dropped some quick times this season, swimming marks of 1 minute, 2.80 seconds and 23.16 in the 100-yard breaststroke and 50 freestyle, respectively, in the program’s annual Purple and Gold Intrasquad meet last month.
The LSU women also welcomed another top-15 recruiting class to Baton Rouge, which includes elite prospects Torrey Bussey and Cari Blalock.
All-Americans Hannes Heyl, James Meyers and Andrei Tuomola and NCAA qualifier Craig Hamilton are back this season to lead the LSU men’s swimming corps.
The trio of Heyl, Meyers and Tuomola was part of a formidable relay tandem that earned four All-America honors at the NCAA Championships and swam to a third-place finish and school record in the 200 medley relay at SEC’s last season. Highly-touted freshman Michael Saco of Miami is expected to bolster those relays with his sprint freestyle potential in addition to being an impact performer in individual racing.
In diving, LSU returns one of the conference’s top men’s performers in junior Brian Gemberling and the reigning SEC Women’s Freshman Diver of the Year, Rebecca St. Germain.
Gemberling, the program record-holder in three-meter diving, reached the finals of both springboard events at SEC’s, while St. Germain posted program top-five marks in all three events.
Junior Matt Vieke and All-SEC Freshman Team performer Elle Schmidt will join Gemberling and St. Germain among the diving returnees, but the program will also debut talented freshmen Daniel Helm, Sean McKinney and Kim Harris.
“With the conclusion of Wednesday’s practice, I’m very excited with where our divers are,” head diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “Although it’s early in the season, I’m confident we will have a successful campaign against Auburn and Alabama.
“I know the LSU Tigers are excited to go and compete.”
Auburn and Alabama opened their seasons against each other with the Alabama men upsetting the Tigers, 133-110, and the Auburn women prevailing, 169-74.
The Tigers are led by several conference champions and NCAA All-Americans, including Dan Mazzaferro, Kohlton Norys, Adam Brown and Adam Klein. The Auburn women will be spearheaded by conference champions Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Micah Lawrence and Vennie Dantin.
All-SEC Second Team performer Adam Booher and NCAA qualifier Denes Zubcsek are the Alabama men’s top returnees. Junior Suzanne Schwee, an SEC finalist and school record-holder in the 200 butterfly, leads the women’s squad.
The Notre Dame women, who have won 14 consecutive Big East titles, will open their dual-meet season on Friday. Senior All-American Samantha Maxwell, the reigning Big East Swimmer of the Year, and three-meter conference champion Jenny Chiang will lead the charge.