LSU Gold

Eight Swimming & Diving Women Travel to NCAA's

by Brandon Berrio
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Eight Swimming & Diving Women Travel to NCAA's

BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU Women’s Swimming and Diving will have seven swimmers and one diver competing at the NCAA Championships from March 20-22 at the Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

Four individual qualifiers and eight total qualifiers for the LSU women’s team mark the largest group since the 2010-11 season and the most in at least 18 years.

“The goal is to score points and finish in the top 25,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “We’ve talked about creating our culture in a smaller group there. It’s important to walk in with confidence and know that the work has already been done.”

Prelims of NCAA’s begin at 11 a.m. each day. Finals will follow at 7 each evening.

ESPN3.com will stream finals sessions live on Friday and Saturday. Thursday’s sessions, along with the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed on gophersports.com. ESPNU will also air a 90-minute show at 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 2.

Live results for the championships will be available at www.NCAA.com.

Sophomore Cassie Weil, platform and three-meter program record holder, is the lone LSU Diver heading to NCAA Championships. At the 2014 SEC Championships, the Hillsboro, Ore. native took bronze on three-meter and platform. Last season, her freshman year, Weil earned NCAA Honorable America Honors on platform and three-meter.

“Cassie has trained and prepared all year for this event,” LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “The qualification aspect is the hardest part. Now she can relax and shine at NCAA’s.”

“We just returned from Minneapolis and she had a very successful run. It works to her advantage to return to the facility. Going back into it is something easy to do,” Shaffer added.

On the swimming side, Amber Carter, Kara Kopcso and Caley Oquist qualified individually. Kopcso and Oquist combined to set three school records this season. Oquist broke the 100 (52.67) and 200 (1:54.87) backstroke at the 2014 SEC Championships. Kopcso also set the record in the 200 butterfly (1:56.12) in the dual meet against Texas A&M.

Junior and women’s team captain Amber Carter owns three top-10 LSU Swimming times. Carter has qualified for NCAA Championships all three years on campus.

Megan Cox, Taryn MacKenzie, Danielle Stirrat and Leah Troskot will also represent LSU in the 800-freestyle, 400-medley and 200-medley relay.

Two of the women’s relay teams set school records at SEC’s. Stirrat, Cox and Kopcso were a part of the 800-freestyle relay while Oquist, Carter and Troskot were a part of the 400-medley relay.

A full recap will be available on lsusports.net at the conclusion of each day. For more information and updates on LSU Swimming and Diving please visit LSUsports.net, ‘like’ us on Facebook at LSU Swimming and Diving or follow us on Twitter @LSUswimdive.

NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships
Order of Events
 
Thursday, March 20
Prelims- 11 a.m.
200-yard Freestyle Relay
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
400-yard Medley Relay
One-meter Diving 
 
Finals- 7 p.m.
200-yard Freestyle Relay
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
One-meter Diving
400-yard Medley Relay 
 
Friday, March 21
Prelims- 11 a.m.
200-yard Medley Relay
400-yard Individual Medley
100-yard Butterfly
200-yard Butterfly
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Three-meter Diving
 
Finals- 7 p.m.
200-yard Medley Relay
400-yard Individual Medley
100-yard Butterfly
200-yard Butterfly
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Three-meter Diving
 
Saturday, March 22
Prelims- 11 a.m.
200-yard Backstroke  
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
400-yard Freestyle Relay
Platform Diving
1,650-yard Freestyle—All but last heat of time finals  
 
Finals- 7 p.m.
1,650-yard Freestyle
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving
400-yard Freestyle Relay