LSU divers Alex Bettridge, Cassie Weil and Allie Alter achieved NCAA Zone scores in a 220-80 win over Tulane Friday evening at the Reily Natatorium. LSU moved to 1-0 on the year while the Green Wave dropped to 0-2.
“Our girls did a really nice job today,” LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “We drove to New Orleans, got off the bus, warmed up and competed. The circumstances were not ideal, but the adversity and distraction forced us to focus. I’m proud of the way we rose to the challenge.”
LSU divers occupied the top four spots in the women’s three-meter springboard event. Weil earned her first win of the year handedly with a score of 348.22. Bettridge and Alter followed in second and third place with scores of 291.15 and 280.05 respectively.
The lone women’s senior diver, Bettridge, took home the win on one-meter with a score of 282.68. Weil and Alter followed in second and third place.
In her first collegiate dual meet, Madison Sthamann finished fourth on three-meter with a score of 271.80 and fifth on one-meter with a score of 230.78. Sophomore Katie Lagarde finished seventh on three-meter and sixth on one-meter.
It was also a dominating performance on the swimming side. LSU swimmers notched wins in 12 out of 14 individual events and swept the two relays.
“I thought we came in and did what we needed to do today,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “With the goals our program has, it’s important to enter a meet and compete at the highest level that we are capable of.”
Jane MacDougall started off the individual events with a win in the 1000 free (10:19.68), her first competitive collegiate swim. The freshman also finished second in the 500 free (5:05.60).
Stacey Stanfield took the win in the 500 free with a time of 5:03.00. Jessie James also highlighted the distance events with a second place finish in the 1000 free (10:20.57).
The 1000 free and 500 free were two of four events in which the Lady Tigers took the top three spots. The trio of Danielle Stirrat (1:51.31), Leah Troskot (1:53.71) and Devon Dabney (1:53.92) dominated the 200 freestyle. NCAA automatic qualifiers Amber Carter, Kara Kopcso and Caley Oquist also took one through three in the 100 fly with times of 54.21, 54.68 and 57.29 respectively.
Oquist, the program record holder in the 100 back, touched the wall first in the event with a time of 55.38. Sophomore Makenna Wilson (56.90) and freshman Kate Zimmer (57.09) followed in second and fourth place.
Colleen O’Neil provided a nice day for the Lady Tigers with a win in the 200 breast (2:18.57) and second place finish in the100 breast (1:02.84).
Sophie Weber touched the wall second in the 200 breast (2:22.16) and beat out Megan Cox in the 200 fly by almost two seconds (2:00.29) for a nice win.
Carter and Katlin Sepp took first and second in the 50 free with times of 22.97 and 24.03 respectively. Sepp notched a win in the 10th event of the evening, the 200 back, with a time of 2:00.50. Stirrat followed with a time of 2:01.38, which was enough for second place.
Kopcso wrapped up a win in the last individual event, the 200 IM, with a time of 2:04.14. Cox followed in second place with a time of 2:05.48.
The 200-medley relay team of Oquist, Taryn MacKenzie, Carter and Troskot took the win with a time of 1:42.71. The team of Carter, Troskot, Stirrat and Megan Cox also finished first in the 200 freestyle relay.
“We had a heavy week of training this week and this is a great gauge of how challenges in our cycles affect us. Our upperclassmen are really embracing the start of the season and guiding our freshmen into this time of the year,” Geyer added.
The full team travels to Gainesville, Florida for the first SEC dual meet of the year next Friday, Oct. 10. The Gator’s men team is the defending SEC Champions and finished third at last year’s NCAA Championships. The Gator women finished third at SEC’s last year and sixth at NCAA’s.
Junior Mia Schachter posted individual wins in the 100 free with a 52.08 and the 100 breast at 1:02.68 while the Green Wave posted four times that qualify for the school’s record book as the Tulane University swimming and diving team opened the home portion of the 2014-15 season with a solid performance against LSU on Friday afternoon in the Reily Student Recreation Center Natatorium.
Schachter’s mark in the 100 breast stands as the No. 6 overall time in school history while freshmen Tirol Palmer (57.67) and Alex Brindisi (2:06.89) posted the No. 7 individual and No. 9 overall marks in the Green Wave annals in the 100 back and 200 fly, respectively. In addition, the quartet of junior Elizabeth Cook, Schachter, senior Vanessa Loewen and sophomore Jonna Frantz joined forces to clock a 1:45.24 in the 200 medley – a time which sits sixth in the Tulane record book.
Despite the stellar performances, however, the Lady Tigers posted first-place efforts in 12 of the 14 events to cruise past the Green Wave, 220-80. In defeat, Tulane fell to 0-2 in dual meet action. Friday’s meet was the season opener for LSU.
“There’s a lot of history in this rivalry,” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. “They’re an SEC program and they provide very tough competition, but like I’ve said before, I’ve never been afraid to swim against tough competition because that challenges everybody across the board. It was great to win a couple of events today.
“It was fun being back in our home pool here and it was a good start to the home-meet season. We’re better than we were last week, so that was an improvement. Across the board, we were a lot better – especially in our distance events. They did a good job in that…Throughout the meet, they got a little bit tired and we’ll work to make that better in the future. I think that also comes with this time of the season which is when we’re training so hard.”
Schachter posted Tulane’s lone wins of the day and freshman Emma Lincoln finished second in the 100 free with a 52.57. The Green Wave also had individual third-place performances by Cook in the 100 back (57.03) and 200 back (2:06.20), Frantz in the 50 free (24.40), sophomore Joy Jason in the 100 breast (1:04.79) and 200 breast (2:25.38), and sophomore Ellie Sills in the 200 fly (2:05.84) and 200 IM (2:09.53). The 200 medley relay was one of two units to post a third-place finish as the quartet of Frantz, freshmen Alex Brindisi and Emma Lincoln, along with senior Amy Needham clocked a 1:38.44 in the 200 free relay.
Junior Rachel Schnieder led the Green Wave in the fourth-place finish in the 1000 free (10:32.79) and a fifth-place showing in the 500 free (5:10.60), Lincoln paced Tulane in the 200 free with a fourth-place showing (1:54.72) and Sills did so in the 100 fly (1:54.72) to come in fifth overall.
In diving action, junior Lauren Arnold finished fourth in the one-meter springboard with a 236.78 and a fifth-place performance at the three-meter elevation at 246.82. Fellow junior Maren Kjell, meanwhile, scored a 194.70 on the one-meter and a 224.92 on the three to finish seventh and sixth, respectively.
“We’ll take some of the feedback split-wise and trying to figure out some better strategies for some of them and how we can swim them a little bit better,” Robinson added. “We saw some improvement in that, so we’re working in the right direction. We’ll also work on our toughness and just getting our hand on the wall when we need to. We need to work on some turns here and there. All of these things, we’re going to improve on.”
The Green Wave return to action on Saturday, Nov. 1, when they play host to West Florida at noon at the Reily Center. From there, Tulane will swim a double-dual against Western Kentucky and host Vanderbilt on Nov. 8 before closing out the fall portion of the schedule on Nov. 21-23 at the Pearland (Texas) Invitational.
COACH ROBINSON’S QUOTES FOLLOWING THE MEET AGAINST LSU
Overall thoughts on the meet
“We were good. It was fun being back in our home pool here and it was a good start to the home-meet season. We’re better than we were last week, so that was an improvement. Across the board, we were a lot better – especially in our distance events. They did a good job in that. Some of the standouts were Mia winning both of her events – which was great. We also had a couple of people with lifetime-best times, which I was not expecting. That was great and we had a lot of other good swims. I think we’re still tired from training and that showed up a little bit here. Throughout the meet, they got a little bit tired and we’ll work to make that better in the future. I think that also comes with this time of the season which is when we’re training so hard.”
On swimming at home
“It was so great. Thank you so much to our fans. It was really a fun and rowdy crowd. The girls definitely feel that energy and it helps them out a huge amount.”
On what it means to swim a quality foe like LSU
“There’s a lot of history in this rivalry. They’re an SEC program and they provide very tough competition, but like I’ve said before, I’ve never been afraid to swim against tough competition because that challenges everybody across the board. It was great to win a couple of events today.”
On what she takes from this meet
“We’ll take some of the feedback split-wise and trying to figure out some better strategies for some of them and how we can swim them a little bit better. We saw some improvement in that, so we’re working in the right direction. We’ll also work on our toughness and just getting our hand on the wall when we need to. We need to work on some turns here and there. All of these things, we’re going to improve on.”
