Tulane Swimming Set to Battle Intrastate Rival LSU This Weekend

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, October 2. Following a solid start to the 2014-15 season a week ago, the Tulane University swimming and diving program will open the home portion of the schedule on Friday, Oct. 3, when the Green Wave play host to LSU at the Reily Student Recreation Center Natatorium. The meet is slated to begin at 5 p.m. and admission is free.

The meet against the Lady Tigers will be Tulane’s annual Pink Meet to raise awareness for breast cancer. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to show their support for those who have overcome breast cancer, are currently battling the disease as well as those who have lost their fight with the condition.

The Tulane Athletics marketing staff will have a table set up in the Reily Natatorium to accept donations, and all proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation. T-shirts, wrist bands and signed Tulane swim caps will be available for anyone who donates.

“We’re actually having a team meet today to open up and talk about [breast cancer],” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said of her team’s Pink Meet against LSU. “I believe that most everybody has been affected one way or another – by family members or friends. Nobody is removed from this epidemic of breast cancer in women. We’re going to open up and talk about what it means to us and how we’re going to swim with that in mind while remembering those who have either beaten that cancer or are in the throes of it right now.”

During the season-opening weekend, the Green Wave finished second at the North Texas Relays on Friday before dropping a 179-121 affair at TCU on Saturday. Tulane posted eight total wins in the two meets, including a stellar performance by junior diver Lauren Arnold who set a school record in the one-meter springboard against the Horned Frogs with a Zone Diving Meet-qualifying mark of 293.02.

Arnold also won the three-meter elevation at TCU and teamed with fellow junior Maren Kjell to win the combined diving event during the North Texas Relays with a tandem score of 478.20. Also posting wins for Tulane at the North Texas Relays were the trio of junior Elizabeth Cook, senior Vanessa Loewen and freshman Tirol Palmer in the 300 back relay, the quartet of Palmer, sophomore Joy Jason, Loewen and junior Mia Schachter in the 400 medley and the foursome of sophomore Jonna Frantz, freshmen Kaitlin Simpson and Emma Lincoln, along with Schachter, in the 400 free relay. Against TCU, Jason and Schachter posted individual wins in the 100 breast and 100 free, respectively.

“Last week was a good start for our program,” Robinson said. “They were a lot better in some events than I’ve seen in the past and the freshmen really stepped in and filled those roles that needed to be filled. It was good to see them race finally, and other people had great races as well – especially in the second day against TCU. We raced real races there and that made it a little bit easier to see where we are at this point. It was great to see Joy step up in the 100 breaststroke and get the win and Mia step up in the 100 freestyle and get the win. There were a couple of other close races that we were pretty proud about, too.”

LSU comes to town with a clean slate so far this season as Friday’s dual meet will be the first of the season for the Lady Tigers. Headlining the list of returners for LSU are a quintet of NCAA Qualifiers from a year ago in Alex Bettridge, Kara Kopcso, Cassie Weil, Amber Carter and Caley Oquist.

Carter qualified last season in the 100 fly and took first in the ‘C’ final at SEC Championships. Weil is a four-time All American, which includes a first-team honor last season on platform, and Bettridge was a 2012 NCAA honorable-mention All-American while setting the program record on one-meter in 2013-14. Kopcso owns LSU records in the 200 fly and 800 freestyle relay and qualified for the United States Junior Pan Pacific team over the summer, while Oquist burst on to the scene last season with record-setting performances in the 100 and 200 back at SEC Championships.

Friday’s meet marks the 21st meeting between Tulane and LSU on the pooldeck dating back to the 1978-79 campaign, and the Lady Tigers hold an 18-2 advantage in the all-time series. Last season, LSU claimed a 211-89 victory on Oct. 25, 20-13, in Baton Rouge.

“I’ve never been one to be afraid of competition,” Robinson added. “I think it challenges us in a very good way. We’re looking forward to a great challenge this coming weekend. What I want to see the team do is be better than we were last year – get a few more points than last year and get a few more wins in events than we did last year. That would mean we’re growing as a program and doing what we need to do to get better.”

Following the meet against LSU, the Green Wave return to action on Saturday, Nov. 1, when they play host to West Florida at noon at the Reily Center. From there, Tulane will swim a double-dual against Western Kentucky and host Vanderbilt on Nov. 8 before closing out the fall portion of the schedule on Nov. 21-23 at the Pearland (Texas) Invitational.

COACH ROBINSON’S COMMENTS HEADING INTO FRIDAY’S MEET vs LSU

On her team’s performance during last week’s season-opening meets

“Last week was a good start for our program. They were a lot better in some events than I’ve seen in the past and the freshmen really stepped in and filled those roles that needed to be filled. It was good to see them race finally, and other people had great races as well – especially in the second day against TCU. We raced real races there and that made it a little bit easier to see where we are at this point. It was great to see Joy [Jason] step up in the 100 breaststroke and get the win and Mia [Schachter] step up in the 100 freestyle and get the win. There were a couple of other close races that we were pretty proud about, too.”

On the matchup against a very good LSU team

“I’ve never been one to be afraid of competition. I think it challenges us in a very good way. We’re looking forward to a great challenge this coming weekend. What I want to see the team do is be better than we were last year – get a few more points than last year and get a few more wins in events than we did last year. That would mean we’re growing as a program and doing what we need to do to get better.”

On the improvement she would like to see from her team from a week ago

“I’d say they could drop a few more seconds in various events. At this point in the season, we’re training pretty hard right now and this is a big week as far as intensity goes. We’ve stepped up the intensity and we’ve also stepped up the volume, so we’re not preparing in a way that we’re going to have lifetime-best times or anything. It’s too early in the season to rest or anything like that for a meet. We’re training hard and doing what we’re doing to be tough right now. We need to learn mental toughness when they’re tired and yet we’re asking them to swim fast. That’s what we’ve been working on this week along with some other strategy kinds of things for the races.”

On what she would like to see from her team against LSU

“Like I said, I want to see them score more points than we did last year at this meet. Last year, we swam really well against LSU. We’d like to see a few more wins than we did last year. We’ll see what we can do on those things and with our divers competing at a little higher level than they did last weekend. That would be great.”

On this being Tulane’s breast cancer awareness meet

“We’re actually having a team meet today to open up and talk about that. I believe that most everybody has been affected one way or another – by family members or friends. Nobody is removed from this epidemic of breast cancer in women. We’re going to open up and talk about what it means to us and how we’re going to swim with that in mind while remembering those who have either beaten that cancer or are in the throes of it right now. We’re asking fans to wear pink to the meet, so hopefully they’ll come out with pink on. We’re giving out bracelets and doing a couple of fun things throughout the meet with promotional type of things, but also to get more donations for breast cancer awareness.”

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

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