LSU vs. Florida State

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, January 11. THE Florida State swimming and diving team lost to the No. 21 and No. 24 ranked LSU Tigers Friday afternoon at the Bobby E. Leach Center Pool. The No. 23 Seminole men were defeated 187-113 while the No. 20 ranked women lost 164.5 135.5.

"We didn't win, but I could see that our kids were fired up and ready to go," said head coach Neil Harper. "This meet is always competitive and I like the fact that these kids hate to lose and they hate to be fatigued and tired, but we'd much rather be tired and losing now to a really good team than trying to win the meet and lose later."

The FSU women trailed for most of the meet, but were able to tie the score at 103.5 after junior Caroline Robertson (Ocala, Fla.) won the 500 free (4:59.78). However, LSU won the next four events to take the victory. Robertson added a win in the 1000 free (10:14.59) to go along with freshman Lowri Tynan's (Wrexham, Clwyd, Wales) win in the 100 breast (1:04.09), sophomore Tiffany Elias's (Phoenix, Ariz.) victory in the 200 butterfly (2:04.63) and junior Georgia Holderness's win in the 200 breast (2:19.67).

On the men's side, divers Dan Frebel and Terry Horner took victories on the three-meter and one-meter board. Frebel (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored a career high of 382.28 points to take the win on the three-meter while defending one-meter National Champion Horner (Orlando, Fla.) won his signature event with a score of 319.65.

"I think Dan [Frebel] is staring to find his rhythm," said diving coach Patrick Jeffrey. "A lot of hard work has gone into it and I have been waiting for it to happen and as a coach sometimes you can tell that all it is going to take is a little confidence and it's going to be right there."

Freshman Ian Rowe (Towson, Maryland) was victorious in the 1000 free (9:18.50) and sophomore Scott Thacker (Lynchburg, Virginia) won the 100 breast, touching the wall in a time of 56.28 to add to the men's victories.

Even in defeat, the Seminoles put on quite a show. Before the meet began the Florida State marching band played the National Anthem and the fight song to pump up the crowd. Harper kept the momentum going after the second break by banging out the warchant on a nearby trashcan.

"It always gets them fired up, they like when I do it," said Harper. "When we're at a home meet, if I can do that for 30 seconds and get the team going, it's always fun."

It will be a quick turnaround for the Seminoles with the team back in the pool Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. as Florida State takes on Florida A&M, Florida International and Florida Gulf Coast. Before the meet, FSU will honor their 11 seniors for their contributions to the team. Admission is free and for updated results visit www.seminoles.com.

Special thanks to Florida State for contributing this report.

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