BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s swimming and diving (4-2, 2-2 SEC) returns to the pool for the regular season finale in the annual quad meet against Houston, Rice and Tulane on Friday and Saturday at the LSU Natatorium.
Competition begins Friday at 5 p.m. between the four teams, and the meet will conclude Saturday at 10 a.m. The diving portion of the meet will run concurrent with the swimming events. The one and three-meter springboard will be conducted on Friday and platform diving will follow on Saturday.
The women’s squad looks to gain momentum before the SEC Championships in February by closing out the regular season with a string of victories. The Lady Tigers are 1-1 this month with a home victory over Alabama.
“I think we have three talented teams coming into race. It’s a great format with it being women’s only and having multiple heats and going head-to-head against those teams,” said head swimming coach Dave Geyer. “We’ll have some women that are rested up for this and won’t be going to conference. For everybody else, it’s that final fine-tuning before we head into SECs.”
“Some people will stick with their main event, and some people will try to get out of that a little bit and make sure they’re a little fresher for SECs. It’s going to be quality racing no matter what.”
Senior Colleen O’Neil leads the way for the swimmers with 10 victories on the season, picking up two wins against Alabama in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
Senior Kara Kopcso has impressed the last two dual meets, garnering a pair of victories in the 100 and 200 fly against the Crimson Tide. Kopcso also earned two second place finishes against Texas A&M in the same events.
In the past three meets, sophomore Haylee Knight has finished in the top-three in both the 50 free and 100 free, taking first in the 50 free against Tulane. Senior Leah Troskot also holds three top-10 times in the SEC in the 50, 100, and 200 free.
On the boards, sophomore Lizzie Cui looks to wrap up a solid month of diving after sweeping one and three-meter against Alabama. Cui, a one-time SEC Female Diver of the Week, also took first overall on three-meter against Texas A&M, diving to a personal best of 367.65 to retain her spot at third on LSU’s all-time list.
Freshman Makayla Robillard has also placed no lower than third the past two dual meets on both one and three meters.
“We look forward to this meet as our last competitive experience before the championship season,” said head diving coach Doug Shaffer. “Competition is the best prep for our championship season, so we look forward to competing at home in preparation for what’s ahead.”
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.