BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU men’s swimming and diving team dropped a nail biter in the squad’s season opener to Florida State 161-139 and the Lady Tigers moved to 1-1 on the season after falling to the Seminoles 179-116.
“We are pleased with the performances on our men’s side, there is always a want to walk away from duel meets with a win, but for our first competition there were many positive individual performances,” Head Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “Solid performances from Sara Haley, Audrey Lawson, Torrey Bussey and Sally Wood on the women’s side. It obviously wasn’t enough, as Coach Harper and his Seminoles certainly had a better team today.”
The Tigers (0-1) earned victories in seven of the 16 events. The competition was close from start to finish, as the Seminoles pulled away in the final events of the competition to earn their first victory of the season.
Junior Raymond DePauda in his first meet at LSU swam the front leg of the first place 200 medley relay. He cranked two second place finishes in both the 100 backstroke (51.24) and 100 butterfly (49.96). In the 100 fly, he nearly touched the wall first and trailed by only .04 second to eventual winner Cadell Lyons.
Sophomore Ricardo Alvarado Jiminez swept both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. His 100 breast time of 55.91 was a second and a half faster than his closest competitor. In the 200 breast, he posted a time of 2:03.25. He also earned a silver finish in the 200 individual medley (1:54.55).
DePauda swam the front leg of the first place 200 medley relay and was joined by junior Andrei Tuomola, senior Martin Jungfleish and sophomore Michael Saco with a time of 1:30.88.
Saco, returning from action after sustaining an injury that kept limited his production last season, registered second place finishes in the 50 free with a time of 20.49 and the 100 free (45.82)
Freshman Michael Young earned his first collegiate victory in the 200 back with a time 1:50.45. Junior Simon Diefenthal touched the wall first in the 100 back with a time of 50.87.
“Raymond DePadua swam big in his first division I competition and Ricardo Alvarado Jiminez had two big breaststroke wins to keep us in the meet,” Geyer said.
“We speak to the men often about the details needed to win and we lacked some discipline on our finishes. For the first meet, again, we are thrilled with some individual performances.”
In his first meet before taking off for the Pan-American Games, Seminoles senior Mateo De Angulo posted three individual first places. His first came in the 1000 free with the time of 9:20.94. Just minutes later, he posted a 1:39.36 in the 200 free matching his season high of which he set week in Gainesville. He countered with a victory in the 500 free with a time of 4:31.43.
On the women’s side, Florida State won 13 of 16 events during the meet. The Seminoles moved to 3-0 on the season.
Sophomore Torrey Bussey provided the Tigers best performances. She contributed a first place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.84), a second place finishes in the 200 breast (2:19.10) and swam the second leg of LSU’s second place 200 medley relay (1:44.35).
Junior Sara Haley notched a first place finish in the 200 fly with a time of 1:59.07.
Fellow junior Audrey Lawson earned bronze in the 200 fly (2:01.66).
Junior diver Elle Schmidt finished third in the three-meter dive event with a score of 247.95. On the one-meter dive, freshman Alex Bettridge finished second (275.33).
“While the women were short handed coming into the meet, we do not accept that as an excuse for today,” Geyer said. “We knew we had to have our women here step up and take roles they weren’t used to. The women have high goals for this season and we will address some changes that need to be made to achieve them. It is a long season and we use each meet to progress toward SEC’s and NCAAs.”
The Tigers resume competition against the University of Florida tomorrow at 12 p.m. (CT). The Gators have consistently been a swimming and diving power under the 14 year tutelage of head coach Gregg Troy.
During the 2010-11 campaign, the Gators emerged victoriously in 11 of 16 events to defeat the LSU men’s team at the LSU Natatorium 160-136. Tuomola earned a pair of individual victories against the Gators. The Haarajoki, Finland, product swept the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle with times of 20.75 seconds and 45.71, respectively.
Both the Gators men’s and women’s team finished second at the SEC Championships last season. The men’s team finished fifth and the women’s team finished fifth at the NCAA Championships.
Florida returns eight All-Americans on the men’s side and 10 on the women’s side, including two members in Sebastien Rousseau and Jeffrey Raymond from the NCAA Champion 800 free relay.
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