LSU vs. SMU & Loyola (New Orleans)
- Saturday, October 27, 2019
- Baton Rouge, LA
- RESULTS
- Final Score (Men Only)
- LSU 186, SMU 101
- LSU 234, Loyola (New Orleans) 41
After falling to SEC rival Kentucky earlier in the week, Dave Geyer‘s LSU Tigers men’s team bounced back nicely with a pair of victories against SMU and Loyola at home in Baton Rouge, LA on Saturday – winning 14 out of 16 events.
In the first event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, Geyer made the executive decision to split his relays in an attempt to go 1-2. The gamble paid off as LSU picked up the win in 1:30.49 and secured a 2nd place finish in 1:31.51 over SMU in 1:31.92 thanks to a 19.82 anchor from Matthew Klotz.
The Tigers continued to build momentum with another 1-2 finish in the 1,000 free led by Sven Saemundsson in 9:33.52 and Keagan Finley in 9:39.92. In a very tight race, SMU returned the favor with a 1-2 punch of their own in the 200 free with Ridge Livermore (1:41.38) and Jesse Washington (1:41.46) holding off LSU’s Cameron Karkoska in 1:41.60.
Klotz picked up the win in the 100 back with a 48.96 over SMU’s Matan Segal in 49.36. LSU’s Luca Pfyffer, who had a nice 24.44 split on the winning 200 medley relay earlier in the session, got his hand on the wall first in the 100 breast with a 56.45 over SMU’s Connor Dalbo in 56.99.
LSU would go on to win the next 5 races as well with Lewis Clough in the 200 fly (1:50.19), backstroke specialist Karl Luht in the 50 free (20.80), Matthew Phillip in 1M diving (326.70 points), Clough in the 100 free (45.14), and Thomas Smith in the 200 back (1:46.18). SMU’s Dalbo was able to put a ‘W’ in the column for the Mustangs in the 200 breast, overpowering Pfyffer 2:02.37 to 2:02.48.
Saemundsson picked up his 2nd win of the day in the 500 free with a 4:36.59. Another pair of winners, Clough and Luht – went 1-2 in the 100 fly with Clough out-touching his teammate by 0.01 with a 49.29 to 49.30. Phillip followed up his 1M victory with a win in 3M as well, racking up 355.43 points. 3x SEC Champion Juan Celaya-Hernandez did not compete for the Tigers on Saturday, as coach Doug Shaffer noted, “Leaving out Juan today was a coaching choice based on where he is with fatigue and stuff like that, so it was a move made in the best interest of the big picture.”
In the final two events of the meet, LSU’s Pfyffer was victorious in the 200 IM with a 1:51.71 and the Tigers narrowly got their hands on the wall first in the 400 free relay with a 3:04.94 to SMU’s 3:05.22.
Both the LSU and SMU men are in action next at the Art Adamson Invitational starting November 14th in College Station, TX. Loyola us up next at the Tiger Invitational in San Antonio, TX beginning November 16th.