BATON ROUGE – The LSU swimming and diving team is splitting up this weekend, as the women travel to take on Tulane and Loyola Friday at 5 p.m. in New Orleans, while the men will host SMU and Loyola at the LSU Natatorium Saturday at 1 p.m..
The women (2-2) showed some encouraging signs in the pool earlier this week against Kentucky.
“When I spoke with the women after the meet against Kentucky,” said swimming head coach Dave Geyer. “I thought we took some really positive steps forward as a team. That meet came down to about .4 seconds. It’s exciting and we want to keep the momentum going. “
“Tulane is a really talented squad,” explained Geyer. “They pushed us at home last year. I think we’re going to get that same push this year Friday night in their home pool. So we have a good challenge ahead of us, but I’m hoping our women are ready to step up to that challenge.”
Leyre Casarin has cemented herself as the best sprinter on the team after winning both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle against the Wildcats.
The 200-yard butterfly has also become a strength for the Tigers after they swept the podium earlier in the week, courtesy of Helen Grossman, Gabrielle Pick, and Nicole Rozier.
Diver Lizzie Cui will also be looking to stay undefeated this season. Cui is 16-0 in dual-meet competition since the beginning of last season.
The men (2-2) will look to rebound from the loss with a home meet against SMU and Loyola.
“With the ebbs and flows of training, our men and women are going to be at different spots,” said Geyer. “We got back into training Wednesday, and we’re going to challenge them. We have an SMU team coming in that hasn’t competed yet, so we don’t really know what they are capable of. We’ve raced them the last couple of years, but we don’t have a lot of scouting. We’re going to go after our strengths in our last meet before midseason.”
Karl Luht and Thomas Smith will look to lock down the backstroke events for the Tigers.
Luht and Smith are undefeated in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke this season, and are competing at an elite level. Luht currently has the 8th fastest time in the NCAA in the 100-yard backstroke, while Smith holds the 12th-fastest time nationally.
Diver Juan Celaya-Hernandez is also undefeated this season, and will look to keep that streak going. The two-time SEC Diver of the Week is 6-0 this season and 15-1 in dual-meets since the beginning of last season.
“This weekend is a good challenge and another opportunity for us to get competitive experience as we move forward in our season,” said diving head coach Doug Shaffer.
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Order of events (Friday):
3 Meter Diving
200 Yard Medley Relay
1000 Yard Freestyle
200 Yard Freestyle
100 Yard Backstroke
100 Yard Breaststroke
200 Yard Butterfly
50 Yard Freestyle
1 Meter Diving
100 Yard Freestyle
200 Yard Backstroke
200 Yard Breaststroke
500 Yard Freestyle
100 Yard Butterfly
-Break-
200 Yard Individual Medley
400 Yard Freestyle Relay
Order of events (Saturday):
200 medley relay
1000 free
200 free
100 back
100 breast
200 fly
50 free
-Diving-
100 free
200 back
200 breast
500 free
100 fly
-Diving-
200 IM
400 free relay