BATON ROUGE — The No. 23 LSU Women’s Swimming and Diving Team scored its first two points of the competition during day two of the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn, Ala.
“Today was a much better session for the team,” LSU Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “As far as performances go, Alex Bettridge stepping up as a freshman diver, to score and get points for us, was great. We got two points on the board. Relay wise, we had some nice splits out there.”
Bettridge, the SEC Freshman Diver of the Year, earned her first All-America Honorable Mention on the three-meter springboard with a 15th place finish and a six-line total of 306.30.
“I couldn’t be more happy for Alex,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “She entered the season with the goal of scoring at the NCAA Championships, but first she had to qualify. Scoring points here was definitely on her bucket list for the season.”
Sophomore Torrey Bussey set her career high in the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 1:00.71, which reset the program’s second fastest time. Her 25th place finish is three spots higher than that of her freshman campaign.
Senior Samantha Goates, a Four-Time NCAA Honorable Mention, wrapped up her LSU Swimming and Diving career after swimming the lead off split of the 200 medley relay (1:40.86).
The Exeter, Calif. native will finish her LSU run with the third fastest 50 free mark in the program’s history with a time of 22.55. During her sophomore and junior seasons, Goates was instrumental in helping the Tigers to back-to-back top-16 finishes in the 200 free relay and 200 medley relay.
“I talked to her this year about her commitment, dedication to the program and the sacrifices that she made over the past four years,” Geyer said. “Unfortunately she did not add any All-America Honors this year, but her contributions over the last four years have been outstanding. She is going to law school and will continue to have excess. She has always represented our program with pride and dignity.”
Besides Goates, freshman Amber Carter, Bussey and freshman Marlene Niemi contributed on the 21st place 200 medley relay.
Carter and junior Sara Haley posted 100 butterfly marks of 54.10 and 54.14, respectively. Coach Geyer was impressed with both athletes’ swims, especially Haley’s, who will attempt to score points in the 200 fly tomorrow.
Auburn is streaming live video, free of charge, the preliminary sessions during each of the three days and finals on Thursday night. ESPN has the rights to stream Friday and Saturday finals and will do so at ESPN3.com
Saturday Prelims:
http://ulive.cbssports.com/index-ncaa.html?media=303039
After each session, results will be available through this link: http://www.ncaa.com/championships/swimming-women/d1
The Official NCAA DI Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships program will be available soon at www.ncaa.com/DIWomensSwimDive.
For more information on the LSU Swimming and Diving program, please visit LSUSports.net, follow @LSUSwimDive on Twitter or ‘like’ LSU Swimming and Diving on Facebook.