Editor’s note: Longtime Baton Rouge sportswriter, author and television host Lee Feinswog takes his unique approach to sports to dig deeper into LSU Athletics. Look for these features online and in official athletics department publications throughout the 2014-15 season.
Swimmers? Divers?
At a school where both basketball teams are in March Madness, the respective baseball and softball teams are ranked No. 1 in the nation and the gymnastics team is killing it, the LSU women’s swimming and diving squad has quietly had one of its best seasons in the program’s history.
And it all comes to fruition starting Thursday in Greensboro, N.C., at the NCAA Division I Championships, where three LSU divers and eight swimmers will compete in the three-day meet.
It’s likely the bulk of LSU’s points will come from the divers, a trio that includes senior Alex Bettridge, junior Cassie Weil and freshman Madison Sthamann.
They qualified for the NCAA meet through their performances at the NCAA zone meet last weekend in Iowa City, but it was at the SEC Championships a month ago when it was obvious good things were happening.
“We had an absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal SEC Championships,” 13th-year LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said, “where day one was good, day two was as good or better, and day three from start to finish was one of the most memorable days I’ve had in my coaching career.”
On the first day of the meet, on 3-meter, Bettridge was second and Weil fourth. Then on 1-meter, Bettridge set the SEC record (350.30 points), while Weil was eighth.
And on 10-meter platform, Weil was the winner (331.70), Bettridge finished third and Sthamann was fifth, not far off Shaffer’s prediction to his divers back in the fall that could sweep that event at the SEC meet.
“SECs were a blast,” Bettridge said.
But in a sport where you risk great physical injury on almost every dive, especially off the platform, it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. They could only go to the NCAA meet by advancing in the qualifier, which all three did, giving LSU three of the 41 total women divers who will be in Greensboro.
“I’m blessed to have a tremendous group of athletes that make going to work a pleasure every day,” Shaffer said. “They work hard.’
It paid off in the zone meet, where Bettridge qualified by finishing fourth on 3-meter, third on 1-meter and ninth on platform and got back to the NCAA Championship, which she missed out on last year.
“Alex is like a rock,” Shaffer said, praising her senior leadership. “She’s steady, focused and mature. My hope is that in the NCAA Championships is that she doesn’t change anything and just let’s loose does what she can do and if she does that I know the results will be really, really good.”
Weil finished 10th on platform and by making the finals in 1-meter also advanced.
Sthamann was third on platform.
“They’ve done great work and this is just a great group of young women,” Shaffer said.
In Bettridge’s case, her success this year is the culmination of making some major changes to her diving style, specifically she said after her freshman year when she went from being a so-called tuck diver to one who relies on pike-position dives.
“Pike is harder,” said Bettridge, who is from Austin and figured all along she would go to Texas, until she visited LSU. “So after I had a lot of success my freshman year I spent the next two years making a lot of changes. Now it’s all come together.”
Weil, who is from Hillsboro, Oregon, actually had the same diving coach later in her youth career that Bettridge did earlier in hers. She was seventh on platform on NCAA last year, earning All-American honors.
“She’s really amazing and I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do next year,” Bettridge said.
And Sthamann is from White City, Saskatchewan, and turns 19 on Thursday. She dives for the Canadian junior national team.
“Our team is really close,” said Bettridge, who graduates in May with a degree in graphic design. “We’re all best friends.”
All of which Shaffer hopes adds up to great success this week in Greensboro.
“This is the most number of female divers with the greatest amount of potential success in the championship season that I’ve ever had at LSU,” Shaffer said.
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The swimmers going to this meet include sophomore Kara Kopsco, who qualified for three events (200-meter butterfly, 100 fly and 200 individual medley), junior Caley Oquist (200 IM, 100 backstroke), sophomore Colleen O’Neil (100 breaststroke), senior Amber Carter (100 fly), and Leah Troskot (100 free). Three others will join relays, sophomore Devon Dabney, junior Megan Cox and junior Danielle Stirrat.
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The men’s NCAA meet is the following week in Iowa City. Senior diver Daniel Helm has continued his outstanding LSU career and is qualified in all three events.