Courtesy: LSU Athletics
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU Swimming and Diving team will officially kick off the 2021-22 season against Grand Canyon inside the Natatorium Saturday, October 9. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.
“I’m excited to get the 2021-22 season officially started,” head diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “We’re glad to have Grand Canyon in Baton Rouge, which will be a good competitive experience for both of us. It’s very early, but these opportunities give us a gauge and a yardstick, while at the same time serving as a building block for the remainder of our season.”
“We’re excited for the opportunity to compete,” head swimming coach Rick Bishop added. “The student-athletes have been working hard. Grand Canyon has great competitors, and we’re looking forward to finding out where we are at this point in the season. The opportunity to have a home meet here in Baton Rouge is truly special for our team. We can’t wait to show our fans that we’re ready to represent LSU with great enthusiasm.”
The Tigers will take on the Antelopes in what will be the first regular-season competition after Gold defeated Purple in the annual Purple and Gold Intrasquad held two weeks before the official competitive schedule began.
This year’s team returns three Olympians that participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Brooks Curry, who swam in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay and earned a gold medal dons the purple and gold alongside 2021 SEC Champion Juan Celaya-Hernandez and Anne Tuxen.
In addition, LSU returns Montserrat Gutierrez Lavenant and Mitch Mason, who received awards from the SEC after they completed their impressive freshmen campaigns. Gutierrez Lavenant took home Female Freshman Diver of the Year, while Celaya-Hernandez received the SEC Diver of the Year honor. Gutierrez Lavenant and Mason were both named to the All-SEC Freshman team.
Mason also competed in Wave II of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials alongside Curry, as he participated in the 100-breaststroke.
With these pieces returning, plus the impressive freshmen class, LSU is poised to achieve big goals.
During the postseason, LSU men’s swimming and diving squad wrapped the 2020-21 season with their highest finish since the 2003 season. The Tigers earned four top-eight finishes and six All-American honors.
On top of the freshmen class, the Tigers will look to two impressive transfers in swimming with Spencer Adrian and Aaron Parrott. At Louisville, Parrott showed he is a valuable piece in the breaststroke events. He would finish his last season of active competition during his sophomore season with eight top-six finishes highlighted by a first-place showing in the 100-breaststroke and a second-place showing in the 200-breaststroke.
LSU returns swimmers who showed great signs during their freshmen season including Hannah Bellina and Sarah Grace Thompson. Bellina finished the season with 10 top-five finishes, which she accompanied with a win against Tulane in the 200-yard butterfly. Thompson placed in the top-5 five times and looks to improve with a year under her belt.
ORDER OF EVENTS
200M Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
One-Meter Diving
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Three-Meter Diving
200 IM
400 Free Relay
LIVE STATS
Swimming results can be found on Meet Mobile
Diving: lsul.su/3oy2XLc
MORE INFORMATION
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