LSU Invitational, Day Two

BATON ROUGE, Lousiana, January 31. THE 17th-ranked LSU men's swimming and diving team captured seven of nine races, and the women's squad shattered another pool record in relay competition Saturday to wrap up an undefeated weekend for the Tigers at the LSU Invitational.

The Tigers (7-1) defeated the University of New Orleans, 250-97, to close out the regular season with a seven-meet winning streak. With the victory, the men's team reached the seven-win plateau for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

The Lady Tigers (7-3-1) swam past Houston (211-140), Rice (246-95) and UNO (282-57) for three separate victories and concluded the dual-meet season with seven wins out of their last eight decisions.

"We came back today a little bit stronger," LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. "We tweaked the lineup a little bit, and they performed like I knew they would. We shattered some pool records this weekend on the women's side, and that's certainly a good building block going into the SEC Championships."

After breaking the LSU Natatorium record in the 400-yard freestyle relay Friday, the women's team set another pool record Saturday in the 200 freestyle relay. The foursome of Katherine Noland, Katie Gilmore, Jane Trepp and Monica McJunkin recorded an NCAA 'B' cut provisional time of 1 minute, 30.74 seconds to overtake the mark of 1:31.52 established by the Lady Tigers in 2006.

Noland also came up big in the 100 freestyle, swimming to victory with a time of 50.56. In addition, senior Vanessa Duenas registered the win in the 400 individual medley (4:22.41), and sophomore Kannon Betzen secured the 100-breaststroke title with a time of 1:04.70.

Moreover, freshman Morgan McGee emerged victorious in the 200 backstroke (2:02.12), and junior Lauren Grandy swam a season best of 4:56.78 in the 500 free to take runner-up honors.

On the men's side, senior Julius Gloeckner topped the field in the 200 butterfly with a mark of 1:49.88 and posted the fastest time of the meet in the 400 IM, 3:54.08.

Fellow senior Niko Dalman held off teammate Matt Vieke in three-meter diving, scoring 366.50 points on six dives. Vieke tallied a season-high 350.50 points to place second.

Junior Luc Rykosky enjoyed a solid outing, swimming the fastest time in the 500 free with a season-best mark of 4:38.04, while senior Roy Chambers seized the victory in the 100 breast with a time of 56.29.

In women's diving, Houston's Anastasia Pozdniakova, a silver medalist in synchronized diving at the Beijing Olympics this past summer, broke her second pool record of the weekend with her score of 337.70 in the one-meter. The Russian claimed the three-meter record Friday with a 364.80 mark. Lady Tiger Chelsea McCorvey placed third in the one-meter (261.35).

The LSU swimming and diving teams will begin to taper for the SEC Championships, which begin Feb. 18 in Auburn, Ala.

Special thanks to LSU for contributing this report.

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