BATON ROUGE, La. – Eleven members of the LSU Swimming and Diving team are headed to the 2015 Women’s NCAA Championships March 19-21 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The groups marks the largest in program history.
“To take eleven women to NCAA Championships is great for our program,” co-head coach Dave Geyer said. “We are taking a well-rounded group with five swimming qualifiers, three diving qualifiers and three relay participants.”
Alex Bettridge, Cassie Weil and Madison Sthamann qualified for NCAA’s at the Zone Diving Regional in Iowa City, Iowa this week. Bettridge qualified for all three events, Weil qualified on three-meter and platform, and Sthamann qualified on platform.
“This is a really special group,” co-head coach Doug Shaffer said. “Dave and I see the quality in this group and we are excited to see how they do next week. We are going to go to North Carolina to compete and have a blast.”
Kara Kopcso, Caley Oquist, Amber Carter, Colleen O’Neil and Leah Troskot are also representing the women on the swimming side.
Kopcso qualified individually for three events at NCAA Championships. The sophomore is the school record holder in the 200 fly and owns the 24th-fastest time in the country. Kopcso will also swim the 100 fly and 200 IM.
Oquist qualified with the 200 IM and 100 back. The junior owns school records in both events and is rated 23rd and 28th respectively in the country.
O’Neil qualified for her first NCAA Championships with a time of 1:00.16 in the 100 breast, which is the second-fastest time in school history and the 29th-fastest time in the country.
Troskot is the third member of the sophomore class that qualified individually for NCAA’s. Troskot’s time of 48.65 in the 100 free, set at SEC Championships, is the third-fastest time in school history.
Rounding out the automatic qualifiers of swimmers is Amber Carter. The women’s team captain and senior is traveling to NCAA Championships for a fourth and final time.
Devon Dabney, Megan Cox and Danielle Stirrat will also make the trip to North Carolina for NCAA’s. The three swimmers will make up part of the relay teams that will compete over the course of the three-day meet.
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.