The LSU women’s swimming and diving team is set to travel to Houston, Texas, for a meet against Houston, Tulane and Rice on Friday and Saturday.
LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer said this quad meet against these women’s squads has been around since he became a coach at LSU in 2006, and he said the team is looking forward to swimming against three quality opponents.
Both Houston and Rice are coming off wins in their last meets, while Tulane was on the losing end.
The Lady Tigers have had plenty of success recording wins against all three schools the past four years and are looking to make it five straight before preparing for the Southeastern Conference Championships.
“There will be some women swimming fast trying to make a spot on our conference team, and there will be others who will be a little more rested so they can try to get ready for our conference team,” Geyer said.
One of the women who will see a little more rest time than usual this weekend is freshman Kara Kopcso.
Kopcso leads the Lady Tigers with eight wins this year and is coming off a record-setting performance against Texas A&M on Jan. 18 for which she received SEC Female Freshman of the Week.
“We probably won’t have [Kopcso] swim the [200 yard butterfly] this week just to give her a break from that mentally and physically before she heads into conference,” Geyer said.
Geyer said Kopcso has the confidence she needs in that event to take this weekend off to focus on other events.
With the Lady Tigers absent from competition last weekend, it was important for them to stay focused, while at the same time getting rest and staying healthy for the meets to come.
Geyer said even during off weeks, it’s a competition during practice. Swimmers are always racing and competing not only against one another, but against the clock.
Even with LSU being closed for severe winter weather, Geyer said they were able to fit in most of their workouts this week while making up for any lost time on Wednesday during their afternoon practice.
The quad meet starts at 5 p.m. Friday when the teams will go through the first half of events before beginning again at 11 a.m. Saturday for the second half.