The LSU Women’s Swimming and Diving team opened up the two-day quad meet with leads over Houston, Rice and Tulane in the LSU Natatorium on Friday evening.
“I think we came out of the gate really well with a win in the 200 medley relay,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “With individual performances we are starting to see that front end speed, which is exciting heading into the postseason. We are getting after our races. We’ll come back tomorrow and race well. Overall from top to bottom, I think we set the mood to win and go 1-2-3 in some events, and set the table to pull off three dual meet victories.”
The 400 medley relay team of freshman Caley Oquist, freshman Taryn MacKenzie, sophomore Amber Carter and junior Rainey White set the tone early after winning the event with a time of 1:42.78.
LSU took 1-2-3-4 in the 100 backstroke. Freshman Danielle Stirrat picked up a victory in the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.66. Junior Kyra Jones swam her career low with a second place swim and a time of 57.15. Sophomores Katlin Sepp and Jennifer Reese finished third and fourth, respectively.
The Lady Tigers also finished 1-2-3 in the 200 individual medley. Junior Torrey Bussey captured the event with a time of 2:03.29. Senior Sally Wood clocked in behind Bussey with a mark of 2:04.55. Freshman Megan Cox took third.
Cox also touched the wall first in the 200 free with a mark of 1:51.00.
Carter went on to post a pair of individual victories in the 100 butterfly (55.11) and the 50 free (23.48). Both of her marks were close to her midseason invitational times.
Sophomore diver Alex Bettridge captured the three-meter title with her season best score of 325.70. Senior Elle Schmidt notched her career best and narrowly missed the 300-point barrier with a score of 299.55.
“We had good performances,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “The highlight was Alex stepping up on the three-meter and giving her best performance of the year. She has increased her difficulty, so to see those dives come through is right where we need to be going into the Southeastern Conference Championships. This will surely boost her confidence.”
LSU will salute the team’s eight seniors tomorrow at 10:45 a.m., followed by competition resuming at 11 a.m. Seniors Chelsea Griffiths, Sara Haley, Audrey Lawson, Kaelee Mader, Mikayda Mills, Jana Ruimerman, Elle Schmidt and Sally Wood and men's senior diver Jesse Lyman will be honored.
