BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU Swimming and Diving team is set to compete at the Texas A&M Invite in College Station, Texas against Stanford, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Arizona State, Utah, San Diego State and Boise State Nov. 19-21 at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium.
The morning sessions begin at 9:30 a.m. and finals will get started at 6 p.m. Live meet results will be posted on 12thman.com and divemeets.com. Video of the finals will also be available live on SECNetwork+.
The entire squad heads to Texas A&M for the third straight year but this year will provide a different challenge. Because of the Olympic year, prelims will be swum long course meters in attempt to capture Olympic Trial qualifying times. Eleven members of the current team have already earned cuts for the trials.
“This is always a great meet that attracts high-quality teams,” LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “We are excited to go in there against some of the best. With the different set up, we will need to adjust in the warmup. I think we have taken the steps to race and compete at the highest level this weekend.”
The 25th-ranked women’s team (6-0) is in the CSCAA Division I Women’s Team poll for the first time this season. The Lady Tigers are coming off of a 187-103 victory over No. 21 SMU.
Senior Cassie Weil leads the way for the divers this year. The reigning SEC champion on platform has already won four events in six chances this year. Weil has found success over the last two years at the Invite with wins on three-meter and platform.
NCAA honorable mention All-American Kara Kopcso has continued where she left off last season. The last time out, Kopcso took first in the 200 fly against the Mustangs. Going into the meet, the junior owns the top-seeded times in the 200 fly and 200 IM as well as the fourth-fastest time in the 100 fly.
Swimmer Megan Cox has already won seven events during her final season in Baton Rouge. In her return home to Arizona, Cox won three individual events and broke three pool records. Cox is seeded second in the 200 free and sixth in the 100 free.
The men’s team is coming off a win over SMU, their first victory of the year. The Tigers showed off with depth by winning 12 of 16 events.
Juniors Logan Rysemus and Brandon Goldman each won two individual events. Rysemus shined with victories in the 100 fly (48.57) and 100 back (48.93). Goldman won the 200 fly (1:48.02), the 200 IM (1:49.69) and also finished second in the 200 back (1:47.16).
Goldman owns the top time in the 200 IM and 400 IM as well as the fifth seed in the 200 back. Rysemus goes into Texas with the third seed 100 fly and 100 back as well as the fifth seed in the 200 IM.
The freshmen once again stood out with memorable performances for the men against SMU. Thomas Smith took first in the 200 back with a time of 1:46.74 and finished second in the 200 IM with a time of 1:52.20. Alarii Levreault-Lopez touched the wall second in the 1000 free (9:40.70) and 200 fly (1:51.00).
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, women’s three-meter and 400-medley relay.
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.
Olympic Trial Cuts:
Silas Dejean: 100 breast
Brandon Goldman: 200 IM, 100 back and 200 back
Tyler Harper: 50 free
Kara Kopcso: 100 fly, 200 fly and 200 IM
Alarii Lopez: 200 fly
Jake Markham: 200 free
Colleen O’Neil: 100 breast
Caley Oquist: 100 back
Logan Rysemus: 100 fly and 100 back
Thomas Smith: 100 back and 200 back
Sophie Weber: 200 IM
ORDER OF EVENTS
Women events are odd numbers and men events are even numbers
Thursday:
1/2: 200 Free Relay
3/4: 400 m / 500 Y 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: Platform Diving
31/32: 1650 Freestyle
33/34: 200 Backstroke
35/36: 100 Freestyle
37/38: 200 Breaststroke
39/40: 200 Butterfly
41/42: 400 Freestyle Relay