BATON ROUGE, La. – In two of the biggest meets of the season, the LSU swimming and diving teams will travel separately to compete in both the Art Adamson Invitational in Mansfield, Texas, and the Missouri Diving Invite in Columbia, Missouri, starting on Thursday and going through Saturday. The prelims for the swimming team will begin Thursday at 9:30 a.m. CT in the MISD Natatorium, and the divers will begin at 11 a.m. CT at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
Live stats for the Art Adamson Invitational will be made available through sidearmstats.com/tamu/swim. Diving results will be posted to divemeets.com.
“We’re expecting to perform well,” said swimming head coach Dave Geyer. “We’re taking a little bit of rest going into the meet, and we’ll throw on our tech suits and see where we can land. If we can knock off some times and put us in consideration for making the NCAAs, it’s great. It gives our team a good experience for SECs in terms of that three-day championship format.”
“There is a lot of racing over those three days, but it’s a great field of competition. The races are going to be there for us to try and elevate where we’re at, and recognize where we stand time wise moving forward to SECs and NCAAs.”
“We’re looking forward to this competition at this time of the year because it gives us the opportunity to compete in three events like a championship format,” said head diving coach Doug Shaffer.
“We’re in Columbia (Missouri) because it’s the site of our NCAA Regional in March, and there is the advantage of competing here prior to going. It’s an opportunity for the men and women to compete in all three levels. It’s a yardstick to measure where we are and where we need to fine tune. We’re very well prepared and looking forward to competing. We have some great competition that will surely give us the opportunity to step up to the plate.”
The women’s team is 2-1, and senior Colleen O’Neil leads the way with six individual victories overall in the breaststroke, tallying three first-place finishes in the medley relays. Against Auburn, seniors Kara Kopcso and Leah Troskot were a part of the 200-medley relay that took first in the opening event with a time of 1:40.67. Kopcso secured two more individual victories in the 100 fly and 200 IM, and Troskot touched the wall first in the 50 free, posting a time of 23.12. Sophomore Gabrielle Pick moved up to ninth on the women’s all-time list in the 200 fly, finishing at 1:59.63.
Sophomore divers Lizzie Cui and Rileigh Knox are both slated to compete in the Missouri Diving Invitational. Last season, Cui became the program’s 23rd NCAA All-American after finishing 14th overall for honorable mention honors and qualified for NCAA Championships on one-meter. She also competed for New Zealand during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Knox is coming off a third place finish on the three-meter, scoring a 286.73 in her first meet of the year against Auburn.
The men sit at 1-1 on the year with Logan Rysemus at the helm. The senior has tallied three individual wins on the year. In the meet against Auburn, Silas Dejean touched the wall first in the 100 and 200 breast against Auburn, finishing with times of 54.21 and 2:00.00 respectively. Senior Brandon Goldman also bested his time on the all-time list, completing the 200 fly at 1:47.16 to stay at seventh overall.
The freshmen for the men’s team have turned in stellar performances in two meets on the season.
Sven Saemundsson is coming off a strong performance against Auburn where he earned a spot on the men’s all-time list in both the 500 and 1000 free. Saemundsson moved to sixth in the 500 with a time of 4:25.75 and fourth in the 1000, posting a finish of 9:13.74.
Lewis Clough also won his first individual collegiate event in the 200 free against Auburn, clocking at 1:38.75.
For the diving team, Juan Celaya, a native of Mexico, broke both the school and pool record in the three-meter, scoring a 431.80 against Auburn, shattering Sean McKinney’s record (425.70) by six points in his debut collegiate performance.
He also took first on the one-meter where he finished with a score of 392.85, placing him second on LSU’s All-Time list. Celaya beat the field by an average of 58 points in his events.
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.
Art Adamson Invitational Schedule-MISD Natatorium
Thursday
Prelims
9:30 a.m.
Finals
6 p.m.
Friday
Prelims
9:30 a.m.
Finals
6 p.m.
Saturday
Prelims
9:30 a.m.
Distance Events
3:30 p.m.
Finals
6 p.m.
Mizzou Diving Invite Schedule-Mizzou Aquatic Center
Thursday
Prelims
11 a.m. – Men’s 1-Meter/Women’s 3-Meter
Finals
6 p.m. – Men’s 1-Meter (top 12)
7:15 p.m. – Women’s 3-Meter (top 12)
Friday
Prelims
11 a.m. – Women’s 1-Meter/Men’s 3-Meter
Finals
6 p.m. – Women’s 1-Meter (top 12)
7:30 p.m. – Men’s 3-Meter (top 12)
Saturday
Finals
10:30 a.m. – Women’s 1-Meter
1 p.m. – Men’s Platform
News courtesy of LSU Athletics.
Geaux Tigers!!!