The LSU swimming and diving teams open three days of competition today at the Cougar Classic Invitational in Houston in a setting that will prepare the squads for events later in the season.
Today through Saturday, 13 women’s squads and four men’s teams will compete in a morning preliminary round, followed by finals in the evening. Southeastern Conference foes Texas A&M and Arkansas will also be represented.
The meet will serve as a tune-up for SEC and NCAA championships, which have a similar format to the Cougar Classic.
“I think it’s ideal,” said LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer. “The getting up early, longer prelims sessions, come back and try to swim faster at night — this is what we need to prepare for the rest season to give our team a good feel of what the conference lineup is like.”
The similarities between the Cougar Classic and LSU’s later competitions don’t end in the pool, however. Geyer said as many as 360 athletes will be in the pools each morning warming up for the day’s events.
“When we get to conference time, it will be about 400 athletes in the water, so it matches that really well,” Geyer said. “On the women’s side with 13 different teams there, you have two very capable SEC teams with Arkansas and Texas A&M there. You throw in the mix a program like Wyoming that will come down from elevation and naturally get some rest just from being closer to sea level.”
In preparation for the three-day invitational, Geyer said the swimming teams focused this week on staying energized and healthy, as to not wear down as the weekend goes on.
The diving competition will include the 1-meter springboard, the 3-meter springboard and for the first time this season, platform events.
“We’ve trained really well on platform,” said LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer. “This is our first opportunity to get up and do the dives we’ve been doing on a regular basis but also do the dives that are new on our list.”
Shaffer said the divers will face a new challenge in that they may have to wait as long as 30 minutes in between dives, whereas in a dual-meet scenario, the time between dives is much shorter.
“The experience of diving prelim, final, prelim, final, prelim, final for three days in a row is invaluable when we’re looking to prepare for SEC championships and NCAAs down the road,” Shaffer said.
