BATON ROUGE — LSU junior Amanda Kendall will join her United States teammates today at the Pan American Games hosted in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The USA Swimming and the United States Olympic Committee chose Kendall to represent her country in the 100-meter freestyle after her spectacular performance at this past summer’s US Nationals, August 2-6.
At the event, Kendall qualified for the ‘A’ final after posting a 100 free time of 55.30. She went on to finish seventh in the final round with a top-50 in the world for the 2011 cycle and lifetime best of 55.08.
“This is a great opportunity for Amanda to gain some valuable swimming experience at the international level,” Head Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “It brings our program great pride to know she will head to the games and not only represent LSU, but also be a part of Team USA. This is definitely an experience that she will be able to learn from and use as an asset in July of 2012 at Olympic Trials.”
The Fairfax, Virginia native Kendall won the consolation final of the 100-yard free at NCAA Championships with a staggering time of 48.12. Through out her career she has earned one First-Team All-America accolade and six Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Kendall is also LSU’s 100yd free record holder after swimming to a bronze medal at SEC Championships (47.90).
Kendall has improved drastically from her freshman to sophomore year, and looks to use her international and long course competition to her advantage once the collegiate season begins.
“Coach (Lance) Asti has done a great job with Amanda over the course of this past school year as well as this summer,” Geyer said. “We are excited to have her heading to Mexico to not only represent the United States of America, but representing our LSU Lady Tigers.”
The rest of the Tigers will be heading to Tallahassee on Friday to take on Florida State at 2 p.m. (CT). The following day, the Tigers will open up SEC competition against the University of Florida at 12 p.m. (CT).
The Pan American Games are held every four years the year prior to the Summer Olympics. The Pan Am Games consists of 36 sports and nearly 400 events. The swimming portion of the games will be held from the 15th to the 21st.
For live timing please visit www.omegatiming.com.