BATON ROUGE — The LSU Swimming and Diving women’s (2-3, 1-1 SEC) squad will travel to Houston, Texas on Friday for a quad-meet against host Houston, Tulane and Rice.
Competition will begin at the CRWC Natatorium at 6 p.m. on Friday and resume at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“It is the final tune up before the SEC Championships, so we are trying to stick everyone in their main events race wise,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “Relay wise, we’re trying to keep our options open there as we move on to conference championships as far as what would give us the most competitive relays three weeks from now.”
Junior swimmers Amanda Kendall and Sara Haley as well as senior Samantha Goates lead the Tigers thus far this season.
Kendall paced LSU last weekend against 11th ranked Texas A&M with three individual victories in the 100 freestyle, 200 free and 100 butterfly. She currently holds LSU’s top time this season in all three individual events, the 50 free and all five relays.
Haley has shown versatility for LSU this season and has gold medal performances in the 500 free, 200 fly, 400 medley relay and the 800 free relay.
Goates provides LSU with a sprint freestyle 1-2 punch along with Kendall. Against the Aggies, she earned her spot atop the podium with a first place finish in the 50 free. She also contributes on the 100 free and the 200 free and 400 relays.
“It is a situation where we need to go in, execute and put some times on the board to know we’re ready to swim against the SEC in a few weeks from now,” Geyer said. “We’re not taking anybody lightly, but we’re going to be out there racing the clock and doing what we can to gain some confidence.”
The diving duo of junior Elle Schmidt and freshman Alex Bettridge are poised to become bright spots for the program in the post-season, however they must arrive in Houston ready to compete.
“I’m looking for them to carry on the competitive success that they have had,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “Coming in against Texas A&M, that was a rival and a good elite level of competition, we’re going to have the same level of competition on the women’s side in Houston. Houston has historically has a real strong crew and has at least one or two NCAA All-Americans that will be able to compete again.”
Bettridge set her personal bests on both the one-meter and three-meter, 293.65 and 344.40 respectively, en route to setting the program mark in the three-meter.
The divers will compete in two events, the one-meter and three-meter, which will count to the final total in addition to an exhibition on the platform. This will be the duo’s last opportunity to hone their skills on the platform prior to SEC’s.
For up to date information on the LSU Swimming and Diving program as the post-season closes in, please visit LSUsports.net, follow @LSUSwimDive on Twitter or ‘like’ LSU Swimming and Diving on Facebook.