Courtesy: LSU Sports
BATON ROUGE, La. – After traveling to Utah for its first dual meet of the season, LSU swimming and diving prepares for the Arkansas women’s swimming and diving team Thursday in a conference battle between two SEC foes, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. CT inside the home venue of the LSU Natatorium.
LSU is coming off its opening dual meet of the season last Saturday against Utah, and five days after competing at altitude, the Tigers are set to meet the Razorbacks in Baton Rouge. The meet will be between both team’s women’s swimming and diving squads.
“We’re looking forward to bringing in the new season at home this week,” diving coach Drew Livingston said. “Our women have a great opportunity to improve on our first meet at Utah from the comfort of our home pool. Our focus this time of year is all about progression and improvement, and that will be no different in a competition setting this week. Arkansas will be a good test for us but that’s exactly what we need right now.”
Live results for the meet can be found on the MeetMobile app and final results can be found on www.LSUsports.net following the conclusion of the competition.
LAST TIME OUT
Against Utah, LSU got off to a fast start winning 10 of the first 14 events prior to the first diving break. The Tigers won both 200-yard medley relays, which included 6-8 Croatian swimmer Jere Hribar serving as the men’s final leg and overtaking the lead in the final 25 yards for the victory.
In the distance events, Jacob Pishko shined, picking up his first individual win as a Tiger, winning the 1000-yard free with a time of 9:28.91. Pishko also touched the wall first in the 500-yard freestyle, clocking a time of 4:32.06.
During LSU’s strong first half of the meet, the Tigers got wins in the 200-yard freestyle from Megan Barnes. Katarina Milutinovich and Griffin Curtis got back-to-back wins in the 100-yard backstroke with respective times of 55.90 and 50.09. Miluttinovich and Curtis also won the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke events, respectively.
Team captain Mitch Mason won both breaststroke events with winning times of 55.17 in the 100-yard breaststroke and 2:03.19 in the 200-yard breaststroke. Sofia Sartori took first place in the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.28), while Hannah Bellina picked up the win in the 100-yard butterfly (57.64).
Hribar and Michaela de Villiers each won the 50-yard freestyle with respective times of 20.29 and 23.62.
On the boards, LSU and Utah competed on the springboards. On one-meter Montserrat Gutierrez Lavenant and Zayne Danielewicz finished in second place with respective scores of 304.20 and 288.23. Helle Tuxen claimed third with a score of 288.15, and Maggie Buckley placed fifth with a score of 250.58. Carson Paul and Thomas Dowling rounded out the men’s side on one-meter.
On three-meter, Gutierrez Lavenant collected another second-place finish with a score of 260.63 with Tuxen placing third and Buckley claiming sixth. On the men’s side, Paul came in second with a score of 370.50 with Danielewicz (3rd) and Dowling (5th) rounding out the total of six divers who competed.
I would expect to see Arkansas make the top 25 if anyone at all is paying attention. After an easy win over Kentucky they walked away with a W over LSU even with LSU dominating the diving portion.
And Kentucky was ranked 19th after the meet and the board did not rank Arkansas? As a swimming nerd I was confused about this months rankings.