The women’s swimming and diving team, represented by eight competitors, will begin the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., today in hopes of bringing an individual championship to Baton Rouge for the first time since 2000.
Highlighting the eight competitors are the automatic qualifiers junior Amber Carter, freshman Kara Kopcso and sophomore Caley Oquist.
Oquist, a native of Minnesota, returns home to swim the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke on Friday and Saturday.
Oquist owns the school record in both events with times of 52.67 and 1:54.87, thanks to a strong performance at the 2014 Southeastern Conference Championships.
Kopcso will be swimming the 200-yard butterfly on Saturday, which she holds the school record in with a time of 1:56.12.
In her first season at LSU, Kopcso has become a star performer for the Lady Tigers and coach Dave Geyer said he expects much of the same from the freshman heading to her first appearance at the NCAAs.
“It’s just another swim meet,” Geyer said. “She’s competed at the SEC Championships which is a meet like no other. In 2012, she competed in Olympic trials so she’s already stepped up and raced in front of 11,000 people.”
Much of the same can be said of Carter, who has qualified for the NCAAs all three years at LSU and will be competing in the 100-yard butterfly on Friday.
Joining the three automatic qualifiers is the relay team, featuring a trio of sophomores and a freshman, Megan Cox, Taryn MacKenzie, Danielle Stirrat and Leah Troskot. The relay team will be competing in the 800-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard medley relay and 200-yard medley relay today and Friday.
Sophomore diver Cassie Weil will be the only diver traveling to Minneapolis, but coach Doug Shaffer said he isn’t worried about her going in alone.
Weil, who finished in the top 12 in two of the three dives in last year’s NCAA competition, has plenty of experience diving in the pressure-filled environment. Shaffer said Weil earning two NCAA Honorable Mention All-American honors in last year’s meet should help her going into this year’s.
“She’s trained and prepared really well all year long for this event,” Shaffer said. “We just returned from Minneapolis where she had a successful run at the NCAA Zone D Regional, so that works to an advantage to already be there and turn around and go back because we’re acclimated to the city. We’ve dived in the environment.”