BATON ROUGE — The LSU Swimming and Diving team travels to College Station, Texas for the Art Adamson Invitational to compete against Stanford, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Arizona State, Grand Canyon and the Boise State women’s team Nov. 20-22.
The morning sessions begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The finals will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday. Live meet results will be posted on aggieathletics.com and divemeets.com.
“I think it’s an opportunity to mock NCAA’s and come similar to SEC’s,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “There is going to be some fast swimming this weekend. This will give us an opportunity to see where we match up in the middle of our season.”
The 17th-ranked women’s team (3-2) are led by swimmers Kara Kopcso and Amber Carter as well as divers Alex Bettridge and Cassie Weil.
Bettridge has been named the SEC Diver of the Week twice this year after her performances against Auburn, Alabama and dual meet against Incarnate Word. The senior owns five wins on the year and has not placed worse than second in any event so far.
Weil is a four-time All American and will get her first shot on platform this season. At the midseason meet last season, the junior took first on platform and finished third on three-meter. Weil also earned bronze on three-meter and platform at SEC Championships last season.
Kopcso enters midseason with the fifth-fastest 200 fly and seventh-fastest 400 IM time in the country. The sophomore set both times at the SMU Classic where the Lady Tigers finished first. So far this season, the Mandeville, La. has five wins on the year in the 200 IM, 200 fly, 400 IM and 200 free.
Carter owns the second-fastest 100 fly time in the country (52.86), which she set at the SMU Classic. Carter has had her finest performances so far this season against nationally ranked teams Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Louisville, SMU and NC State. The Houston, Texas native won the 100 fly and 50 free against Alabama and Auburn; had a pair of second-place finishes and won the 100 fly against Florida; and had a trio of second-place finishes at the Classic.
Frank Greeff, Brandon Goldman, Silas Dejean and diver Daniel Helm pace the men’s side.
Greeff is a two-time Honorable Mention All-American in the 200 fly. So far this season, the senior owns the top times in four events for the team. Greeff finished second in both fly events against the seventh-ranked Florida Gators. The South Africa native swept the 100 and 200 free against Incarnate Word for his first wins of the season.
Goldman has continued to impress after a strong freshman year. In the first meet of the year against Florida, Goldman finished first in the 200 back, second in the 200 IM and third in the 200 fly. The Hillsboro Beach, Florida native also garnered second-place finishes in the 200 fly and 200 back against Auburn and Alabama.
Dejean has had a strong showing in just three meets this season. The sophomore finished second against Florida and fourth against Alabama and Auburn in the 100 breast. Dejean also swept the breaststroke events against Incarnate Word this past weekend.
Helm notched his first win of the season with a score of 373.65 on one-meter against Incarnate Word. The senior also finished second on three-meter with a score of 282.88. Helm also gets his first shot at platform this season. He earned NCAA Honorable Mention All-American honors on platform during his sophomore season.
Things get kicked off on Thursday morning with the prelims of the 200 free relay. The individual events for the first day of competition include the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, men’s one-meter and women’s three-meter.
All individual swimming events will be pre-seeded and have three championship seeded heats. A-B-C-D finals will be offered for all individual events 200 yards and shorter. A-B-C finals will be offered for the 500 freestyle and 400 IM. Scoring for individual events will be: Championship: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 Consolation: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Relays will count double, scoring to 16 places
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.
ORDER OF EVENTS
Women events are odd numbers and men events are even numbers
Thursday:
1/2: 200 Free Relay
3/4: 500 Freestyle
5/6: 200 I.M.
7/8: 50 Freestyle
9/10: Diving
11/12: 400 Medley Relay
Friday:
13/14: 200 Medley Relay
15/16: 400 I. M.
17/18: 100 Butterfly
19/20: 200 Freestyle
21/22: 100 Breaststroke
23/24: 100 Backstroke
25/26: Diving
27/28: 800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday:
29/30: 1650 Freestyle
31/32: 200 Backstroke
33/34: 100 Freestyle
35/36: 200 Breaststroke
37/38: 200 Butterfly
39/40: Platform Diving
41/42: 400 Freestyle Relay