LSU Swimmers and Divers Break Records, Win LSU Quad Meet

Photo Courtesy: Kyle Zedaker, LSU Athletics

BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s swimming and diving team wrapped up a successful weekend of racing with a school and pool record on Saturday as the Tigers defeated Houston, Rice and Tulane in the LSU quad meet.

LSU Press Release

Diver Cassie Weil broke her own school record and LSU’s team of Caley Oquist, Colleen O’Neil, Kara Kopcso and Amber Carter set a pool record on the final day of the quad meet.

“It was another challenge that we wanted to see this morning to swim fast in preparation for SEC’s,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “To light up the relay and have a season best was outstanding. It helped build momentum for the rest of the events. We really sustained that today.”

After two days of competition, the 20th ranked women’s team defeated Houston, Rice and Tulane to move to 7-4 on the year.

The 400-medley relay team set the new pool record with a time of 3:37.41. Weil broke her own record on platform with a score of 316.55. Her previous mark was recorded at NCAA Championships last season.

“Today was a good day,” LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer. “This weekend was also nice to immolate what we do at NCAA and SEC Championships. I saw what I needed to today. I believe that the framework and foundation is all set for us to move forward and have a really successful championship season.”

Devon Dabney and Jane MacDougall took first and second in the 500 free. Dabney finished with a time of 4:52.18 and MacDougall finished with a time of 4:54.34.

Jennifer Reese and Danielle Stirrat took first and second with times of 1:58.56 and 2:00.40 respectively.

Megan Cox added another win for the Lady Tigers with a time of 1:59.01 in the 200 fly.

Sophomore Leah Troskot finished second in the 100 free with at time of 51.78.

Kopcso wrapped up the individual events with her third win of the weekend. Kopcso finished with a time of 4:20.36. MacDougall also added another second-place finish in the 400 IM with a time of 4:24.39.

The women’s team of Angele Cherbonnier, Amber Carter, Oquist and Troskot with a win in the 200 freestyle relay (1:34.11).

The LSU Swimming and Diving returns to action when the Tigers travel to Auburn, Alabama for the SEC Championships Feb. 17-21.

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.

Houston Press Release

Junior Danielle Shedd earned a second place finish in the 3-meter dive, her second podium in as many days and one of Houston’s 14 top-ten finishes on the final day of the LSU Quad Meet on Saturday afternoon at the LSU Natatorium.

Overall in the dual style meet, Houston fell to No. 20 LSU, 279-73, Rice by a count of 253-94 and Tulane by a score of 216-137.

“Today was a much better day for us in terms of our energy and our focus,” said Houston interim head coach Keith Dawley. “We did a great job resetting from a long day yesterday. Some of the results weren’t quite where we wanted, but that can happen at this time of the season.”

The Cougar diving team won three top-10 finishes in the 3-meter dive, led by Shedd with a score of 292.75. Redshirt Freshman Micaela Bouter finished fifth with a score of 264.70, followed by senior Natasha Burgess in sixth, scoring 261.10.

Continuing her impressive debut for the Cougars, freshman Sharo Rodriguez finished sixth in the 400-yard individual medley, completing the race in 4:35.84.

Rodriguez also finished fifth in the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:05.12. Junior Maya Owens (2:10.65) and senior Mackenzie Alspaugh (2:13.23) finished ninth and 10th in the event respectively.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, sophomore Cameron Balkom swam a time of 1:07.34, capturing sixth in the event. Sophomore Marissa Lehman finished 10th with a swim of 1:08.31.

Sophomore Rachel Hobbins placed eighth in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 5:02.97. Meanwhile, in the 100-yard freestyle, Doroteja Bednjanec took seventh with a time of 53.04.

The relay squads finished their time in Baton Rouge with another successful day. In the 400-yard medley relay, the team of Williams, Grijalva, Derevyanik and Bednjanec finished seventh with a swim of 3:58.85. They were followed by Gregory, Balkom, Owens and Moore, who placed eighth in 4:02.88. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the team of Bednjanec, Hamrick, Gregory and Moore finished ninth, swimming the race in 1:39.91.

UP NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
The Cougars travel to Greensboro, N.C. for the American Athletic Conference Championship from Feb. 18-21. Tickets are available now and can be purchased up until the start of competition for $33 each and $18 for college students, senior citizens and those 18 or younger. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

For complete coverage of the American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, visit The American’s Championship Central.

Rice Press Release

Rice senior Rachel Moody broke the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke for the fourth time in her collegiate career to lead the Owl swimmers on the final day of the Quad Meet Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge, La.

The Owls won two of the three simultaneous dual meets at the annual two-day, 17 swim-event competition. In the team scoring Rice defeated Tulane 234-107, and the University of Houston 253-94. Meet host LSU, the No. 20 ranked team in the country, defeated Rice 233-133.

It was at this same Quad Meet exactly one year ago where Moody first broke the Rice school record in the 100-breaststoke. To prove that her record-setting swim on Feb. 1, 2014 wasn’t a fluke, the senior from Houston went on to break her own school mark another three more times in the 365 days since then. Her newest change to the record book is Saturday’s 1:00.93, wiping out her 1:01.15 from last month in San Antonio. Moody improved her spot on the Conference USA leaderboard and she continues to get closer to the NCAA’s rugged automatic qualifying time of 59.12. Fellow Owl senior Madison Livingston was third in the Quad Meet’s 100-breaststroke with season-best 1:04.91.

The Owls also scored big in Saturday’s 200-butterfly. Senior Erin Flanigan finished second overall with a career-best 2:00.44 that is the fifth-fastest time in school history. The Rice freshman duo of Kiley Beall (2:03.85) and Kaitlin Benjamin (2:04.66) were third and fourth in the event, respectively.

Flanigan was also the team’s top finisher in the 500-freestyle, taking third place with a 4:58.08. Freshman Kylie Burgess was fourth in the event with a season-best 5:00.95.

The Owls registered the same two spots in the 200-backstroke where Faith Hirschi was third (2:02.00) and Taylor Armstrong was fourth (2:02.42). The Blue & Gray also had third place finishes from freshman Alicia Caldwell in the 100-freestyle (51.89) and freshman Kaitlyn Swinney in the 400-individual medley (4:25.75).

Where Rice was third in both the 400-medley (3:47.20) and 200-free (1:36.89) relays, Caldwell’s 54.83 on the lead leg of the 400-MR was solid. The mid-semester freshman transfer registered as one of the fastest 100-backstrokes in school history, an NCAA B cut, and easily one of the top C-USA marks this year.

Complete results from the annual Quad meet, including both days’ events, are available at the above link. The Owl swimmers next compete at the C-USA Championships from Feb. 18-21 in Knoxville, Tenn. Rice has won the conference swimming title in each of the last two seasons and in three of the last four years.

Tulane Press Release

Junior Mia Schachter won the 100 free and four other Green Wave student-athletes posted season-best showings as the Tulane University swimming and diving team concluded competition in the LSU Quad Meet on Saturday at the LSU Natatorium.

Schachter clocked out at 51.67 in her winning event and picked up her 10th individual win of the season – her fifth in the 100 free – and the 17th individual-event victory of her career. Junior diver Maren Kjell tallied a season-high mark of 239.55 in the three-meter springboard while sophomore Jonna Frantz (54.46), freshman Alex Lakota (5:09.76) and junior Rachel Schneider tallied season-best times in the 100 free, 500 free and 400 IM, respectively.

After competing with mixed results in 10 events on Friday, the Green Wave showed marked improvement in day two and finished with a 216-137 dual-meet win over American Athletic Conference rival Houston while dropping head-to-head decisions with Rice, 234-107, and the host Lady Tigers, 267-82.

“As a team, we performed much better today than yesterday,” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. “Our women had a more relaxed, yet focused, attitude that allowed for them to race well. Again we saw our swimmers win the close races to out-touch swimmers on the other teams.

“Last year we came away from the meet with no wins and now this year we are grateful to have a win to bring home. We are now two and a half weeks out from our conference championships and look forward to transitioning from strength to speed with our taper over the next couple weeks.”

In addition to winning the 100 free, Schachter also led the Green Wave with a 1:03.60 in the 100 breast to finish second overall in the meet while swimming the second leg of the 400 medley relay and anchoring the 200 free relay units. She teamed with freshman Tirol Palmer, senior Amy Needham and freshman Emma Lincoln in the 400 medley to finish fifth with a 3:54.81, and combined with freshmen Kaitlin Simpson and Emma Lincoln as well as Frantz in the 200 free to finish fourth with a mark of 1:37.13.

Junior Roni Meyer paced the Tulane effort with a 4:33.88 in the 400 IM and a 5:08.30 in the 500 free to finish fourth and ninth in the respective events. Freshman Alex Brindisi posted the team’s top time in the 200 fly with a 2:09.20 to come in sixth overall, and junior Holly Grender headlined the 200 back for the Wave with a seventh-place time of 2:04.99. Junior Lauren Arnold finished ninth in three-meter diving with a 247.10 to finish one spot ahead of Kjell’s and her season-best score.

The LSU Quad Meet was the final competition for Tulane during the regular season as the Green Wave will close out the 2014-15 campaign at the American Athletic Conference Championship from Feb. 18-21 in Greensboro, N.C. The trip to the American Meet will be the first for the Tulane program after competing last season as a member of Conference USA. In their last conference championship, the Green Wave finished sixth among the nine competing teams.

The Green Wave finished with 463 points – 90 points better than their performance of a year ago, the third-highest total by the program in a conference meet and the most since Tulane scored 729 en route to winning the 2005 C-USA crown. Along the way, Tulane swimmers and divers combined to post 22 career-best performances among 35 season-best outings.

Houston, Rice, Tulane vs. LSU Dual Meet – Results

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use