BATON ROUGE- The LSU swimming and diving team is set to kick off the season with the annual Purple and Gold Intrasquad meet Saturday, September 29, at 9 a.m. in the LSU Natatorium. LSU co-head coaches Dave Geyer and Doug Shaffer split up the teams to recreate a dual meet.
“I think the needs for this meet change every year,” explained Geyer. “It’s an opportunity to get the competition blood flowing and see where we we’re at. Some people will be more focused on their primary events and we’ll see what we have a week out from our first dual-meet against Navy and Uconn.”
The Purple Team will be led by Haylee Knight and Juan Celaya-Hernandez.
Knight, a senior, earned three top-20 finishes at last season’s SEC Championships, including a 16th-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle that put her fourth on the LSU all-time list.
Celaya-Hernandez is coming off one of the best seasons in school history. The junior broke his own three-meter school record at the Auburn Diving Invite, won SEC Championships on one-meter and platform, set an SEC record on platform, and earned All-America Honors on all three boards at the SEC Championships.
Meanwhile, Lewis Clough and Lizzie Cui will star for the Gold Team.
Clough set three new personal-best times at the SEC Championships last season, including the third fastest time in school history in the 200-yard freestyle, which led to a 16th-place finish.
Cui will look to build on an impressive junior season. Cui reached the finals on all three boards at the SEC Championships and earned a silver medal on one-meter. The senior also earned NCAA All-America Honorable Mention honors on both springboards after taking 12th and 14th on one-meter and three-meter, respectively.
“We’re excited,” said Shaffer. “We’re in the process of getting back into the swing of things, and this is another step in that process. It gives us an opportunity to complete some of our lists prior to our first dual meet in October.”
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Order of Events
Women/Men 200 Medley Relay
Women/Men 500 Free
Women 200 IM
Women/Men 100 Fly
Women/Men 100 Back
Women/Men 100 Breast
Women/Men 100 Free
-Break-
Women/Men 200 Back
Women/Men 200 Breast
Women/Men 200 free
Men 200 IM
Women/Men 200 Free Relay
Purple Team
Alyssa Helak, Tennyson Henry, Nicole Rozier, Brittany Thompson, Leyre Casarin, Haylee Knight, Gabrielle Pick, Kate Zimmer, Grace Horton, Olivia Paskulin, Sven Saemundsson, Harrison Jones, Alarii Levreault-Lopez, Michael Petro, Matt Klotz, Thomas Roark, Thomas Smith, Jeffrey Snoddy, Cameron Karkoska, Jack Jannasch, Juan Celaya-Hernandez, Aimme Wilson, Rileigh Knox, Jolie Blodgett
Gold Team
Lexi Daniels, Cassie Kalisz, Lauren Thompson, Alexandria Ham, Lia Joslin, Natalie Kucsan, Helen Grossman, Allie McDaid, Katie Smith, Isabella Buttaci, Taylor Andersen, Kit Hanley, Braden Nyboer, Lewis Clough, Miguel Velasquez, Will Arthur, Karl Luht, Mitchell Petras, Luca Pfyffer, Tyler Harper, Trent Schachter, Gabe Parnell, Lizzie Cui, Matthew Phillip, Dakota Hurbis, Anne Tuxen