BATON ROUGE — The nationally-ranked LSU swimming and diving teams will welcome Incarnate Word to Baton Rouge Saturday at noon (CT) on Senior Day in the LSU Natatorium.
Prior to the meet, the programs will recognize Lady Tiger seniors Brooke Barnett, Kannon Betzen, Ali Sanford, Shanna Spears and Jane Trepp and men’s seniors Luis Gonzalez, Clint Hallum, Laust Helmig, Hannes Heyl, James Meyers, Lamar Weeks and Eric Zeller.
The LSU Natatorium is located at the corner of Nicholson Drive and West Chimes Street next to the Carl Maddox Field House and practice tennis courts. Admission is free.
“We are happy to welcome the University of Incarnate Word to our facility,” co-head coach David Geyer said. “They are a solid Division II program that has been developing greatly over the past few years.
“We are also looking forward to honoring our senior class this weekend. The commitment, effort and attitude that they have given this program over the past four seasons certainly does not go unnoticed by this coaching staff.”
The No. 22 LSU men (5-4) returned from their winter training trip in south Florida last week with four victories in five dual meets, defeating Ivy League schools Brown and Penn, Florida Atlantic and American.
The 23rd-ranked Lady Tigers (9-3) have nine wins on the season, the most since the 1998-99 season, after clinching five dual decisions in Miami and Boca Raton, Fla., last week.
Trepp leads the Lady Tigers against the Cardinals as she is one of six swimmers with NCAA provisional qualifying marks thus far this season. The five-time NCAA All-American ranks No. 2 nationally in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly and 10th in the 100 free.
Sophomore Rebecca St. Germain will pace the Lady Tiger diving efforts. The reigning SEC Freshman Diver of the Year ranks in the top five in both springboard events and captured second overall out of 44 competitors in the one-meter at the Tennessee Diving Invitational last week.
Seniors Heyl and Hallum and the sophomore tandem of Andrei Tuomola and Craig Hamilton have spearheaded the Tigers throughout the dual-meet season and will lead the charge Saturday.
Heyl is the team’s top 100-yard flyer with the fifth-best time in the SEC, 48.27 seconds, while Hallum holds the team’s top times in both individual medley events and the 200 breaststroke.
Tuomola and Hamilton are currently the men’s top sprint and distance freestyle specialists, respectively. Tuomola, who leads the squad in the three events, is third in the conference in both the 50 free and 100 breast. Hamilton possesses the Tigers’ top times in the 200, 500, 1000 and 1650 free and is fourth in the league in the mile race.
Freshman diver Daniel Helm, who holds the Tigers’ top three-meter and platform scores, boasts the third-best platform total in the SEC, 331.40.
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