BATON ROUGE — The LSU Swimming and Diving program heads to Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday for the Tennessee Invitational that will take place beginning Wednesday, Nov. 16 and finishing Friday, Nov. 18 at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.
“The benefit of going to the Tennessee Invitational is to simulate our conference championships,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “For the athletes, the three-day format will copy what we will encounter in Knoxville (site of the 2012 SEC Championships) in February.”
On the women’s side, the field will consist of seven schools including LSU, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville, Southern Illinois, Arkansas and Texas A&M. The men’s competition will witness five of the same universities competing, sans Arkansas and Texas A&M.
The invitational will provide the opportunity for the schools and athletes to showcase their long course meter swims in the morning preliminary events and the opportunity to come back and post short course swims in the evening finals.
“When this meet came up, we were talking to the Tennessee coaches and they told us that they were going long course in the morning,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “It gave us as a staff an opportunity if we wanted to take our team to that type of format and focus on a little bit more long course competition with this being sort of that Olympic year to see if we could try and get some more people qualified for the Olympic Trials. Also, for our international athletes to give them the another chance to be selected to represent their countries at the Olympics was appealing.”
Long-course meter marks are used for international qualifying such as the Olympics. Short-course yard times are the standard in the NCAA and times will be used to qualify for the 2012 NCAA Championships.
“No matter what we are going to have to race in the morning,” Geyer said. “We’re going to have to go at it a little bit harder than usual because of the higher level of competition at this meet compared to previous years. We’re going to have to set our short course swims up off of our long course times. The morning certainly is not going to be a walkthrough for us by any means. We’re going to have to step up and get our hands on the wall to have that short course opportunity at night.”
In addition, the platform diving event will be held for the first time this season for the Tigers and scores may be used to qualify for Diving Zone Regionals.
“This will be our first opportunity to compete in the platform event,” Shaffer said. “We have been making good progress in platform and I look for this to continue. The field of competitors is excellent and we’re looking forward to a great event.”
The scoring for the meet will closely represent postseason competition. The finals will host 24 competitors with 16 earning points in either the ‘A’ or ‘B’ final. For relays, from first to 16th place points will be awarded as follows: 40-34-32-30-28-26-24-22-18-14-12-10-8-6-4-2. For individual competition, from first to 16th place points will be awarded as follows: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-9-7-6-5-3-2-1.
LSU will look to make an impression on their opponents and look to use the momentum from the program’s sweep of Alabama two weeks ago.
In her first collegiate meet this season after returning from the Pan American Games, junior swimmer Amanda Kendall earned victories in the 100 free (49.18) and the 200 free (1:47.56) while setting two LSU Natatorium records.
Fellow junior swimmer Sara Haley continued her strong 2011-12 campaign with a pair of individual victories in the 500 free (4:54.88) and 200 butterfly (1:57.11). Her 200 fly mark was also a LSU Natatorium record.
Swimmers junior Craig Hamilton (UK) and Andrei Tuomola (Finland) and sophomore Ricardo Alvarado Jiminez (Mexico) are contenders for their respective countries Olympic teams. They will use the morning portion to improve their long course times.
“We’ve rested a little bit here before the meet so there is a little bit more expectation to preform well,” Geyer said. “Everyone has been looking sharp in the water and in a good mood. We have to get some long course swims to have that opportunity to race short course at night.”
Schedule of events:
Wednesday, Nov. 16:
Day One Prelims:
400 meter freestyle
200 meter individual medley
50 meter freestyle
Women’s one-meter diving
Men’s three-meter diving
Day One Finals:
200 yard freestyle relay
500 yard freestyle
200 yard individual medley
50 yard freestyle
Women’s one-meter diving
Men’s three-meter diving
400 yard medley relay
Thursday, Nov. 17:
Day Two Prelims:
400 meter individual medley
100 meter butterfly
200 meter freestyle
100 meter breaststroke
100 meter backstroke
Men’s one-meter diving
Women’s three-meter diving
Day Two Finals:
200 yard medley relay
400 yard individual medley
100 yard butterfly
200 yard freestyle
100 yard breaststroke
100 yard backstroke
Men’s one-meter diving
Women’s three-meter diving
800 yard freestyle relay
Friday, Nov. 18:
Day Three Prelims:
200 meter backstroke
100 meter freestyle
200 meter breaststroke
200 meter butterfly
Men’s and Women’s Platform
400 meter freestyle relay
1500 meter freestyle- 1heat
Day Three Finals:
1650 yard freestyle
200 yard backstroke
100 yard freestyle
200 yard breaststroke
200 yard butterfly
400 yard freestyle relay