BATON ROUGE — The LSU Swimming and Diving team will compete through out the 2012-13 season against some of the nation’s best, swimming coach Dave Geyer and diving coach Doug Shaffer announced on Monday.
“Knowing how competitive our conference is, we always try to line up meets with not only the best in the SEC but also the best in the country,” Geyer said. “Ultimately all of our competition is used as a primer and foundation for the SEC Championships and the NCAA Championships.”
Fans will have the opportunity to attend three home meets against North Carolina State, Alabama and Kentucky as well a quad-meet against Houston, Rice and Tulane. All admission to LSU Swimming and Diving home meets is free.
Both the men’s and women’s teams produced top-five finishes for the second consecutive season at last year’s SEC Championships.
LSU returns six women and two men who qualified for the NCAA Championships, including NCAA All-American Honorable Mention divers Alex Bettridge and Daniel Helm and distance swimmer Craig Hamilton. In addition to a strong recruiting class, four athletes named to the All-SEC Freshman team return to solidify the team’s core.
Both swim teams will travel to Shreveport to take on Centenary on Saturday, Sept. 22.The entire squad will compete in the annual Purple and Gold Intrasquad meet on Friday Sept. 28.
The women’s swimming team will kick-off SEC competition against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 10. The entire men’s and women’s teams will battle against Auburn on Oct. 20.
Following a women’s dual meet in New Orleans against Tulane on Oct. 26, the women’s team will welcome NC State to the LSU Natatorium on Saturday Oct. 27.
Alabama will bring both of its teams to Baton Rouge on Friday, Nov. 2. The men’s team narrowly defeated the Crimson Tide by a 151-149 margin last season that came down to the final event.
Both teams will head to Houston, Texas for a three-day invitational beginning Nov.15. The Diving teams will proceed with three-day diving invitationals at Auburn beginning on Dec. 17 and at Tennessee beginning on Jan. 3.
The men’s teams will celebrate Senior Day in a home meet against Kentucky on Jan. 5, with the diving results from the Tennessee Invite used as scoring for the diving portion of the competition.
The men’s teams will travel the next week to Dallas, Texas to take on SMU on Jan. 12.The women’s teams will join the men the following week in College Station, Texas on Jan. 19 to compete against Texas A&M for the first time as conference foes.
“Obviously Texas A&M added as an in-conference matchup enhances our meet strength,” Geyer said. “We also have some opportunities for the men and women squad to travel separately which I am excited about. The men will venture to SMU for the first time since 1997, and the women will travel to Vanderbilt, a team we have yet to compete against in a dual meet.”
The women’s teams will celebrate Senior Day in a quad-meet against Houston, Rice and Tulane at the LSU Natatorium on Jan. 25 and 26.
The SEC Championships will be held in College Station, Texas from Feb. 19-23. The NCAA Zone Diving Regionals will be staged in Houston, Texas from March 11-13.
The Women’s NCAA Championships will take place in Indianapolis, Ind. from March 21-23.The Men’s NCAA Championships will also occur in Indianapolis from March 28-30.
For more information on the LSU Swimming and Diving program, please visitLSUsports.net, ‘like’ LSU Swimming and Diving on Facebook or follow @LSUSwimDive on Twitter.