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."

"Going into this meet we knew we had to have a team effort to win,?" LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. ?"We swam and dove well the whole meet. Before the meet I knew if we focused on details and did what we were capable of doing it would be a great meet. I have to credit Florida State. They have a good team and it was a very good battle.?"
 
Senior Julius Gloeckner won all three of his events. The three-time All-American placed first in the 200 free (1:40.11), 200 fly (1:48.60) and 200 IM (1:52.05). The Tigers took the runner-up spot in all three of those events as well. Sean LeNeave took the runner up spot in the 200 fly (1:51.91) and the 200 IM (1:53.83). Connor Farber placed second in the 200 free by clocking a time of 1:42.18.
 
Three other Tigers picked up multiple wins. Katie Gilmore took the top spot in the 50 free (23.63) and the 100 fly (55.48). Jane Trepp finished right behind Gilmore in the 50 free by hitting the wall at 23.74.
 
Miko Malberg won two events with solid performances in the 50 (20.47) and 100 (46.18) free.
 
Katherine Noland won the 100 (50.11) and the 200 (1:49.83) free.
 
Both LSU squads placed first in the 100 and 200 back. In the 100, Monica Mjunkin finished at 55.79 and Hannes Heyl hit the wall at 49.57. The 200 featured Berit Aljand taking the top women?s spot at 2:01.65 and Kevin Braud claiming the men?s event with a time of 1:49.86.

 

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."

The Tigers have little time to celebrate Friday?s win as they left the Leach Center to head to Gainesville, Fla. where they will face the Florida Gators on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
 
The Florida men are ranked fifth, while the Florida women are ranked seventh.
 
"We are going into Gainesville to face an SEC team so there is more incentive to compete," Schmitt commented. "They are a very tough conference foe. We hope to build off tonight?s win and carry that level of intensity and excitement into tomorrow."

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.