BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU women’s swimming team took to the pool for its first regular-season meet of the season and nabbed two victories against Tulane and Vanderbilt Friday afternoon inside the LSU Natatorium.
The final score of the LSU-Tulane dual meet was 214-48 in the Tigers’ favor, while LSU topped Vanderbilt 201-61.
“It was a great day for the Tigers,” LSU head swimming coach Rick Bishop said. “Coming off the Purple and Gold meet, we have a lot of performances that are improving. That is what we’re looking for at this time in the season: constant improvement. We’re working on the details and our racing skills. I thought they did a great job today.
“We’re getting ready to move forward into some SEC competition, and I think we’re in a good spot,” Bishop continued. “We’re getting stronger, working hard and building confidence. We saw some nice swims from Maggie MacNeil with two school records and some of our freshmen are starting to step and show they can do some great things.”
LSU senior Maggie MacNeil, who has been a driving force on any team she’s been a part of, continued her impressive string of performances Friday with the Tigers. Competing in three total events, her times in individual races for the 100-back and 100-free earned her two school records. In the 100-yard back, she surpassed Caley Oquist’s time, clocking a 51.10. For the 100-yard free, she broke Amanda Kendall’s record, swimming a time of 47.43.
Behind MacNeil’s strong outing for her first meet in the purple and gold, LSU won 12 of the 14 events. To start out the season, the Tigers took the top two spots in the 4×50 medley relay.
In the individual events, Jolee Liles opened the distance event slate with a win in the 100-yard free, finishing with a time of 10:06.85. Allison Tomsuden rounded out the top-3 on the event with a time of 10:17.89.
For the 200-yard free, Reagan Osborne nabbed first place with a time of 1:50.08, while Chloe Cheng and Peyton Curry finished in second and third, respectively, with times of 1:51.93 and 1:52.33. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Abby Maoz won with a time of 1:02.43 and Jadyn Jannasch claimed third place with a time of 1:04.21.
Sofia Sartori, a highly touted athlete from Italy, claimed first place in the 200-yard fly with Jenna Bridges and Hannah Bellina closing out the top three places in the event. Similarly, in the 50-yard free, three Tigers touched the wall in succession. Katarina Milutinovich claimed first place, while Michaela de Villiers and Emily Pawlaski touched second and third, respectively.
Sartori grabbed her second win of the meet in the 200-back, finishing with a time of 2:01.13. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Hannah Womer and Jannasch claimed first and second with times of 2:18.50 and 2:21.66, respectively.
To close out the meet, Bridges snagged first place in the 100-yard fly and Womer claimed first in the 200-yard IM.