BATON ROUGE — LSU Swimming and Diving will send six females to the Women’s NCAA Championships slated for March 15-17 at the Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn, Ala.
The Lady Tiger divers will have an opportunity to join the six swimmers after the completion of the diving Zone ‘D’ Regional. The competition will take place March 8-10 at the CRWC Natatorium in Iowa City, Iowa. Twelve women from the event will qualify for the Championships in Auburn.
“We are thrilled for these six women to qualify for the national championships,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “Their goals are not to just qualify, but to compete at the highest level there. We just need to wait another week in hopes that divers Alex Bettridge and Elle Schmidt can join us after Zones.”
Juniors Amanda Kendall and Sara Haley and sophomore Torrey Bussey will compete individual events. Kendall, senior Samantha Goates and freshmen Amber Carter and Marlene Niemi will participate in the 200 freestyle relay
“We are happy for Torrey, Sara and Amanda to qualify in individual events,” Geyer said. “We hope they can use their experience from past years and garner individual point scoring. We feel our 200 free relay can certainly move up at the meet and be faster.”
In addition to the relay, Kendall will swim in three individual events, the 50 free, 100 free and 100 butterfly. At the SEC Championships, Kendall cranked out second place finishes in the 50 and 100 free. The Fairfax, Va. native received two individual medals for the second consecutive season and now has six total in her career.
Kendall set the LSU program record in the 50 free (21.92). She notched a 100 freestyle mark of 47.97 after taking first in the prelims with a mark of 48.27. Her season low of 52.48 qualified her in the 100 fly.
Kendall finished seventh in the 100 fly last season tied with teammate Jane Trepp, becoming the only two swimmers in school history to capture first-team All-America status in that event. She won the consolation final of the 100 freestyle (48.12) and claimed 11th in the 50 free (22.25)
Haley will swim in the 200 fly. At the conference meet she produced a bronze medal in the 200 fly, her second in as many seasons. The El Dorado Hills, Calif. native delivered a program low 1:56.67 in the effort.
Last season, Haley registered a 19th place finish in the 200 fly (1:57.50).
Bussey will swim in the 200 individual medley and ended her SEC’s 200 IM run in eighth place with a time of 1:59.77. She posted her season low in the prelims with a mark of 1:58.53.
Bussey placed 25th in the 200 IM (1:59.21) at the national meet last season.
The 200 free relay qualified with a mark of 1:29.22. All four swimmers recorded sub-23 second 50 free times in individual competition at the SEC Championships.