BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU men’s swimming and diving team will host the Auburn Tigers on Friday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. (CT) in the LSU Natatoriun.
The Tigers (0-2) will use Friday’s dual meet as another chance to improve after last weekend’s consecutive losses at Florida State (161-139) and at Florida (185-115). The Auburn men’s side has captured 16 consecutive SEC Championships and finished sixth at last season’s NCAA Championships.
“There is a reason Auburn’s men’s team has won multiple SEC Championships in a row,” Head Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “It gives our men an opportunity to step up and race against them. That is what this conference is about. That is why our athletes commit here and sign here. We want to compete against them. It is Auburn’s first meet, so I am sure that they are chomping at the bit to race a good deal.”
Although the Tigers opened up the season with consecutive losses, the coaching staff left Florida impressed with a multitude of individual and relay performances.
Senior diver Matt Vieke was named SEC Male Diver of the Week after contributing positively for the Tigers in the team’s narrow loss over the weekend to Florida State. He scored a 317.77 on the one-meter springboard and 340.65 on the three-meter, which put him in second and third, respectively, against Florida.
“Matt takes the leadership role in anything and everything that he does every single day,” Head Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “Matt is a natural born leader. It is something that he embraces. We’re really fortunate to have his skills as a part of our program and as a team captain.”
Junior Raymond DePauda shined in the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke. After finishing second against Florida State in both events with times of 49.96 and 51.24 respectively, DePauda took gold in both events with a 100 fly time of 49.56 and a 100 back time of 50.30.
Geyer is especially impressed with DePauda and senior Martin Jungfleisch because of what they bring to the medley relays.
“Raymond leading off those medley relays has been a golden ticket for us,” Geyer said. “Martin Jungfleisch has stepped up huge on the butterfly legs. I think those medley relays will be strong come conference time and possibly have the chance to be selected for the NCAA Championships.”
In sprint competitions, sophomore Michael Saco and junior Andrei Tuomola have alternated program top times for the year. Thus far, Saco’s season high 50 free time of 20.49 against Florida State holds a slight advantage over Tuomola. On the flip side, Tuomola’s 100 free mark 45.44 set against Florida bests Saco’s top time of the year.
“Our upper classmen have played a big role for us,” Geyer said. “Simon Diefenthal, Andrei Tuomola and Michael Saco have had some great swims. Performance wise and individual time wise, we’re right on track to where we need to be this early in the season. That is ideal looking ahead to our conference championships.”
Similarly, the coaching staff has been impressed with the new additions to the Tigers’ squad.
“Our younger athletes have stepped up,” Geyer said. “Frank Greeff, Michael Young and Raymond DePauda, those three have started to meet our expectations and will probably surpass them as far as our dual meets go.”
After two meets, Vieke is the program’s highest scoring diver in both the one-meter and three-meter dive, but the trio of sophomores Daniel Helm, Kevin Leong and Sean McKinney has battled Vieke for springboard supremacy.
“One of the things that I really like about the men’s squad is that at any particular day, any one of the male divers can step up and be on top of the podium,” Shaffer said. “That breeds competition every single day in practice. That helps us through out the year and keeps us focused on our year end goals.”
Auburn is coached by Brett Hawke and returns eight All-Americans in Marcelo Chierighini, Stuart Ferguson, Zane Grothe, Karl Krug, Chris Manning, Drew Modrov, Max Murphy and Kyle Owens.
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