BATON ROUGE — Junior swimmers Andrei Tuomola and Amanda Kendall were named SEC Male and Female Swimmers of the Week after their spectacular performances at the Tennessee Invitational, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.
Tuomola registered six ‘B’ cuts in three days of competition, pacing the Tigers to a second place finish in the Tennessee Invitational with an overall team score of 931. The Finland native found himself atop the podium in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
Tuomola narrowly missed his third first place finish of the invitational in a hotly contested 100 free race in which he touched the wall second. His 50 free mark of 19.94, 100 breast mark of 53.99 and 100 free mark of 43.78 earned him a NCAA ‘B’ cut in each event. Furthermore, his 50 free and 100 free times are low for the program and the conference this season.
In freestyle relay competition, Tuomola led off the second place 400 free relay and fifth place 200 free relay. His performance in the 400 free relay assisted LSU in earning another ‘B’ cut.
Kendall sparkled for the Lady Tigers at the Tennessee Invitational as well. She had her hand in five gold medal performances as well as earning an NCAA ‘B’ cut in all five of her individual performances.
The Fairfax, Va. native earned first place finishes in each day of the event beginning with the 50 free (22.36). She won the 100 fly (53.16) and swam the front leg of the first place 200 free relay (1:31.21). Kendall also touched the wall first in the 100 fly (53.16) and 100 free (48.19). Her 100 free mark is the lowest in the program and the conference as well this season.
Although she struggled in the long course prelim swim, Kendall rebounded to post the highest final time in the 200 free (1:46.67), giving her the consolation round victory.
After returning from the Pan American Games with four gold medals in as many tries, Kendall has emerged as the Lady Tigers leader and is a real threat to bring home SEC and NCAA honors this postseason.
This marks the third time this season an LSU Lady Tigers has taken home the SEC Swimmer of the Week honor. Fellow junior swimmer Sara Haley has been awarded the weekly recognition twice this season.