BATON ROUGE, La—The LSU Swimming and Diving team opens its Southeastern Conference home schedule Thursday at 1 p.m. against Missouri in the LSU Natatorium.
LSU takes on the No. 10 men’s team and No. 19 women’s team in the first ever dual meet between the two schools. Admission is free, and the first 100 students will receive a free bowl of jambalaya.
“This meet will be a great test for our team,” LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “Missouri is a very talented squad. Throw that in with the fact that it’s a mid-week competition, school just starting and working through our toughest training period. The performance can easily be decided mentally more than physically. We just need to be tough and race.”
The Lady Tigers are 8-0 and 1-0 in conference meets this season. Over the weekend, the women defeated Kentucky and Virginia Tech over the course of two days at the Lancaster Aquatic Center.
Diver Cassie Weil has finished first nine times this season between three-meter and platform. Against the Wildcats and Hokies, Weil finished first on three-meter with a score of 339.05 and on platform. Her score of 299.50 is the highest in the conference this season.
Junior Kara Kopcso has won nine events this season and finished in the top-four of all three individual events at the Art Adamson invitational. The fly and individual medley specialist owns the No. 7 200 fly and No. 9 200 IM times in the country.
Leah Troskot dominated in the Lady Tiger victory by finishing first in all seven events entered in. Troskot swept the sprint freestyle events with victories in the 50 free (23.31) and 100 free (50.34). The junior was also a part of five relay victories over the course of the meet.
In last weekend’s victory, senior Megan Cox finished first in the 200 free (1:49.22), second in the 100 free (50.90) and third in the 50 free (23.78).
The LSU men return to the pool after dropping meets to both Kentucky and Virginia Tech.
Freshman Thomas Smith has sparked the Tigers over the course of his time in Baton Rouge. Against the Wildcats and Hokies, Smith won the 200 back (1:45.54), finished second in the 100 back (49.52) and touched the wall third in the 200 IM (1:51.00).
Overall, junior Logan Rysemus finished first in the 100 back with a time of 48.82 and second in the 100 fly on the final day of the tri meet.
The Missouri men are ranked No. 10 and own a 3-1 record overall and 1-1 record in SEC competition. The women are ranked 19th and are 2-1 overall. In national time rankings, the Missouri women own three top-10 times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. Abby Duncan leads the way for Mizzou with the top time in the country in the 200 breast, an A-cut time of 2:07.02.
A full recap will be available on lsusports.net at the conclusion of the 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.