LSU Men, A&M Women Capture UH Invitep

The Texas A&M women's swimming and diving team swept every swimming event in a dominating team victory at the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational last weekend at the University of Houston's Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium. Fifteenth-ranked LSU captured the men's title. The Tigers tallied 1,448 points in the men’s standings over a three-day period to take first-place, more than twice as many points as runner-up SMU accumulated.

The eighth-ranked Aggies lived up to their billing as they won every swimming race at the three-day championship-style event, and posted at least one NCAA qualifier in every event except the platform dive, in which the Aggies didn't enter anyone. The Aggies scored 1,523 points to far outdistance runner-up SMU (666 points), LSU (621) and host Houston (465).

In Sunday's finals, the Aggies tallied 10 individual NCAA qualifiers and had a pair of relays post "B" cuts in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In an impressive show of depth, the Aggies finished 1-2 in the 400 free relay with the all-senior foursome of Julia Wilkinson, Kristen Heiss, Sarah Woods and Melissa Hain grabbing gold in 3:16.21, and the quartet of senior Alia Atkinson, senior Ella Doerge, junior Maria Sommer and freshman Allyson Sweeney taking runner-up honors in 3:21.93.

Atkinson logged the Aggies' lone NCAA "A" cut with a five-second plus victory in the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.04. Atkinson, the NCAA runner-up at this distance last year, also posted an auto qualifier in the 100 breast on Saturday.

The Aggies' distance freestylers were dominant with a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 1,650, including three NCAA consideration times. Leading the way were a pair of freshmen, Maureen McLaine and Liz Nelson, who finished in 16:19.74 and 16:32.97, respectively. Placing third was sophomore Alyssa Conner in 16:39.23 and junior Casey Hurrell-Zitelman was fourth in 17:02.55.

Seniors Heiss and Emily Neal took the top two spots in the 200 backstroke and logged "B" cut times in the race. Heiss placed first in 1:53.50 and Neal was second in 1:57.17.

The Aggies went 1-2-3 in the 100 freestyle with Wilkinson taking first in 48.24 and Woods placing second in 49.84, both NCAA "B" cuts. Hain grabbed third with a time of 50.46.

“I’m proud of our teams, coming into a championship-formatted meet for the first time this season and racing hard,” LSU head coach Adam Schmitt said. “Our men’s team won the competition, and the women competed well, going against some outstanding programs like Texas A&M and SMU.

“We’ve had a good start to our season over the past couple of months, and we hope to continue training well for the second half.”

Sophomore Mary Beck improved her school-record time in the 200-yard backstroke, and freshman Craig Hamilton emerged victorious in the 1650 freestyle to highlight the teams’ efforts Sunday.

Beck swam to a new program record and NCAA ‘B’ cut mark of 1 minute, 57.38 seconds in the 200-back preliminaries before taking third in the finals with a 1:58.48 clocking. Hamilton picked up his second NCAA provisional time of the weekend with his win in the 1650 free. The Edinburgh, Scotland, native recorded the fourth-fastest time in school history, 15:29.79.

The women’s 400 freestyle relay group of Amanda Kendall, Beck, Samantha Goates and Jane Trepp also delivered an NCAA provisional mark with a time of 3:23.56 to place third, while the men’s 400 free foursome of Andrei Tuomola, Hannes Heyl, Sean LeNeave and Reijo Hyvenen registered runner-up honors (3:01.33).

Moreover, Heyl, Simon Diefenthal, Sara Haley, Clint Hallum, Sean Roddy and Martin Jungfleisch claimed top-three finishes.

Heyl swam the 100 free in a season best of 45.04 to earn second, and Diefenthal touched the wall in 1:51.90 to finish second in the 200 back. Haley took third in the 200 butterfly (2:01.31).

Hallum and Roddy emerged in second and third in the 200 breast with times of 2:06.02 and 2:07.92, respectively. Jungfleisch seized third in the 200 fly (1:52.79).

In diving, sophomores Brian Gemberling, Matt Vieke and freshman Jesse Lyman placed second, third and fourth, respectively, in the men’s platform competition. Gemberling scored a career-high 259.05 points, fourth in program history, while Vieke posted a 252.60 mark, and Lyman tallied a 238.85 score. Freshman Elle Schmidt secured third-place in the women’s platform with a 183.80 mark.

The LSU divers will compete again when they travel to the Alabama Diving Invitational, beginning Dec. 17. The LSU swimmers will not race again until early January.