BATON ROUGE — After a tenuous summer training program, the LSU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will hit the pool competitively for the first time in the 2011-12 season when they square off in the annual Purple and Gold Intrasquad meet Friday at 3 p.m. (CT) in the LSU Natatorium.
“We’re looking for competition,” co-head coach Dave Geyer said. “We’ve been in this training grind and have been practicing to compete. It will give the team an opportunity to finally step up and compete even though it is against each other. They are ready to hop on the board or step on the blocks and get after each other a little bit.”
Admission to the event is free. The LSU Natatorium is located at the corner of Nicholson Drive and West Chimes Street adjacent to the W.T. Dub Robinson Tennis Stadium and near the Carl Maddox Field House.
The women’s team returns First-Team All-American Amanda Kendall and a quartet of NCAA qualifiers that will look to improve on their 14th place finish at the NCAA Championships, which was the Lady Tigers’ best finish since 1992. Their fifth place finish at the SEC Championships was the highest result since 2002.
The women’s side will be joined by an influx of talented freshman, including highly experienced in national competition freshman diver Alex Bettridge, which will seek to replace the plethora of athletes that contributed to the Lady Tiger’s increased success.
In addition, the men’s team returns two NCAA Honorable-Mention All-Americans in juniors Craig Hamilton and Andrei Tuomola as well as possibly the deepest diving core in Tigers history led by senior Matt Vieke and sophomore Daniel Helm. The men’s squad enjoyed its highest SEC finish since 2005 with their fifth place effort last year.
After the departure of many of last year’s men SEC and NCAA contributors, the Tigers will look to replace them with a deep group of freshmen and a number of college transfers.
The teams will be split up based on strengths and weaknesses to provide the coaches’ with an opportunity to gauge development.
“We sit down and look at the roster and try to make the teams as even as possible,” Geyer said. “You try to split up the strengths and the different weaknesses. For example, you split your top butterfliers and your top breaststrokes and put them on different teams. You try and make things as even as possible through out the lineups.”
Six captains selected for the upcoming year will lead each Purple and Gold squad. Senior diver Matt Vieke, junior diver Elle Schmidt and junior swimmer Timmy Dassinger will skipper the Purple squad. Junior swimmers Sean Roddy, Sally Wood and Sara Haley will captain the Gold squad.
“The captains were voted on by their peers and are the captains for the year,” Geyer said. “It worked out well within making the rosters where we will have three captains per team. It will help to add structure and leadership to those teams.”
As part of LSU swimming and diving’s continued efforts in the community, the team urges its fans to take part in the 2011 SEC Together We CAN Food and Donation Drive. All donations collected at LSU will benefit the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.
LSU Swimming and Diving will be collecting cans in the upcoming events:
Friday, Sept. 23, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. – Swimming/Diving Intrasquad (LSU Natatorium)
Friday, Sept. 30, 2:30 – 3:15 p.m. – Swimming/Diving v. Tulane (Women) (LSU Natatorium)
For more information and updates on LSU Swimming and Diving please visit LSUsports.net, ‘like’ us on Facebook at LSU Swimming and Diving or follow us on Twitter @LSUswimdive.