BATON ROUGE — A pool record from Lady Tiger swimmer Jane Trepp and victories in all but one event propelled the nationally-ranked LSU swimming and diving teams past Incarnate Word on Senior Day in the LSU Natatorium.
The 22nd-ranked LSU men improved to 6-4 on the season with their 200-93 victory. The 23rd-ranked Lady Tigers (10-3) became the first women’s squad to notch double-digit wins in the dual-meet season since 1998-99 with their 198-98 victory this afternoon.
Trepp, who is ranked No. 2 in the country in the 50-yard freestyle, broke the pool record in that event for the third time since last January with a time of 22.69 seconds.
Fellow Lady Tiger swimmers Audrey Lawson and Sara Haley enjoyed fine efforts with two victories apiece. Lawson emerged victorious in the 200 butterfly (2:02.94) and 500 freestyle (5:04.13), while Haley prevailed in the 100 fly (55.87) and 200 free (1:51.95).
The afternoon also proved to be a fantastic day for the LSU diving corps with six divers posting season highs.
Freshman Daniel Helm earned first in the men’s one-meter with a career best of 358.72, fourth in school history, while junior Brian Gemberling took the three-meter title with a season-high total of 371.02.
Sophomore Rebecca St. Germain swept the springboard events, tallying a season high of 308.55 in the one-meter and scoring 320.56 points on the three-meter. Fellow Lady Tiger diver Elle Schmidt delivered her finest effort as a collegiate diver with career-high runner-up scores of 295.35 and 293.40 in the one-meter and three-meter, respectively.
Freshman Kim Harris claimed an NCAA Zone Qualifying score in the women’s one-meter, 269.77, and another career best in the three-meter (260.47), while junior Matt Vieke recorded his career best of 356.70 on three-meter.
“I could not have been any happier with the performance of our divers across the board today,” co-head coach Doug Shaffer said. “We have some tweaks to make, but if we continue on the path we are now, we will have a huge impact in the post-season.”
Senior Luis Gonzalez and sophomore Craig Hamilton led the men’s swimmers as each registered two wins in individual competition. Hamilton was victorious in the 200 free (1:42.06) and 500 free (4:34.50), while Gonzalez took first-place in the 200 butterfly (1:53.85) and 400 individual medley (4:00.29).
Prior to the meet, the programs recognized all 12 seniors who have dedicated so much time to both the program and the university.
“We’ve had NCAA All-Americans, SEC Academic Honor Roll students and athletes who have contributed to community service in this senior class, so from top to bottom these seniors have done it all,” co-head coach David Geyer said. “They’ve devoted a lot of time to this program and LSU the past four years.”
LSU will travel to College Station, Texas, for its annual battle with Big 12 power Texas A&M on Jan. 22 at noon (CST).