LSU senior divers Alex Bettridge and Daniel Helm captured silver medals on Tuesday, the first day of the Southeastern Conference Championships in Auburn, Alabama.
Helm broke one of the two school records that went down with a score of 411.30 in the one-meter. Helm is the only LSU diver to ever reach more than the 400-mark in the one-meter. Bettridge posted the second highest score in school history with a 370.60 in the three-meter.
“The finals competition was at an exceptional level,” said LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer in a news release. “To compete at that level and have Alex and Daniel score personal bests and silver medals is phenomenal”.
LSU’s swimmers also set program records with both the men and women swimming their fastest time in the 800 freestyle relay. The men’s team of freshman Jake Markham, senior Daniel Swietlicki, senior Frank Greeff and junior Alex Linge, swam a time of 6:25.65, breaking their previous fastest time set back in 2013.
The women’s team of junior Danielle Stirrat, freshman Devon Dabney, junior Megan Cox and sophomore Kara Kopsco’s time of 7:06:76 broke the school record.
Junior diver Cassie Weil finished fourth on the three-meter with a score of 364.55. Freshman Madison Sthamann, sophomore Katie Lagarde and junior Allie Alter finished in 18th, 21st and 22nd place, respectively, in the three-meter, while sophomore Andrew Suchla finished in 19th on the one-meter with a score of 275.75.
On day two Wednesday, Bettridge followed up her silver medal by capturing the gold medal and setting a school and SEC record with a time of 350.30 in the one-meter
“It’s still kind of new to me and I wasn’t expecting it,” Bettridge said in a news release. “I had no idea where I was on the leaderboard because I was just zoned in”.
Like Bettridge, Weil also made it to the final on one-meter, finishing in eighth place with a score of 311.65. Alter took home ninth place with a score of 261.25.
After breaking the 500 free school record with a time of 4:45:91 in the prelims, sophomore swimmer Devon Dabney began the final session with a seventh-place finish (4:46.26) in the ‘B’ final.
Freshman Joao Mescolote and senior Marco Gonzales placed second and third, respectively, in the 50 free ‘C’ final. Mescolote finished with a 20.07 while Gonzales finished with a time of 20.04.
Following the action from day two, the Lady Tigers were in fourth place with 321 points, and the Tigers’ 189 points were good for ninth place. LSU will continue competing every day until the SEC Championships end Feb. 21.
“It was a solid day for us,” said LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer in a news release. “There were definitely some things we could have done better in the morning for better placement at night.”
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