The LSU swimming and diving teams’ freshman class had a strong showing when the Tigers hosted Tennessee on Friday and Saturday.But the performances weren’t enough to stop the Tigers and Lady Tigers from falling to the Volunteers and Lady Volunteers, 166-134 and 170-130, respectively.The LSU men swam close races all day Friday and had impressive swims from members of its highly touted freshman class.Freshman Craig Hamilton took first place in the 1000-yard freestyle, and his teammate, junior Luis Gonzalez, took second in the event.”He did what he needed to do,” said LSU coach Adam Schmitt. “He won his two distance events, and that’s what we asked of him.”Hamilton also took first place in the 500-yard freestyle, holding off Tennessee’s Geoffery Sanders’ push in the race’s final 25 yards.”My goggles leaked off the start so I was a bit panicky from the start, but I got into it,” Hamilton said. “I was a bit scared of that guy coming back on me, but I was able to hold him off.”Freshman Andrei Toumola made his presence felt before his first race. Toumola raised his arms and signaled to the crowd to “make some noise” before stepping on the starting block.”It’s always much more fun to swim like that when the crowd is with you,” Tuomola said.Tuomola went on to swim a scorching time of 20.62 en route to a victory in the 50-yard freestyle.”When you recruit Andrei as the Finnish national champion, you kind of expect that he needs to step up,” Schmitt said. “He definitely did.”Tuomola and junior Sean LeNeave also took first and second, respectively, in the 100-yard freestyle.LeNeave and sophomore Martin Jungfleisch had a one-two finish in the 200-yard fly.The Lady Tigers’ newcomers had their chance to shine on Saturday. Sophomore Mary Beck, a transfer from California, broke a school record and won all of her individual events.Beck took first place in the 200-yard backstroke while breaking the record set by her teammate Samantha Goates last season.Beck also picked up victories in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley.Lady Tiger freshman Sara Haley, Rebecca St. Germain and Amanda Kendall also enjoyed strong debuts.Haley took first place in the 200-yard butterfly, St. Germain won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events and Kendall picked up a pair of second-place finishes in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events.”For us to come out and compete at that level — winning events, getting a school record and NCAA ‘B’ cuts — that says something right now for October,” Schmitt said._____Contact Amos Morale at [email protected]