Purple and gold will face off against each another after a week of trash talking, practicing and intense drafting.No, this isn’t the NFL — the LSU swimming and diving team will hold an intrasquad swim meet today at 3 p.m. to kick off the season.The team captains held a draft this week to pick swimmers for their teams.Junior James Meyers, captain of the gold team, said the team flipped a coin to determine who had the first pick in the draft. Whoever lost the coin toss got the second and third picks, followed by each team picking one person at a time.”It was kind of difficult this year with all the freshmen we had,” Meyers said. “There’s a lot of talent in that class.”Meyers said he picked a lot of freshmen for his team. He made his picks by looking up their personal best times and watching at practice.”I kind of had a sense of how their training was this summer and how they’ve been training in the pool,” Meyers said.Sophomore diver Matt Vieke said the squad has been getting into the competitive mode and pumping each other up ever since the teams were announced earlier this week.The two teams have been getting into the spirit of the competition with some friendly sparring.”Everyone’s already starting to trash talk,” Meyers said. “It’s going to be a really fun meet, but I’m hoping the points will go towards the gold side so maybe we’ll win this year.”Vieke said he is excited for the beginning of the season but also a little nervous because he hasn’t competed in a long time.”Getting into the meet season is definitely an awesome thing,” Vieke said. “It’s nice to have that first month to really pound out some basics.”Senior Leigh Ann King said the team has been using the weeks leading up to the meet to do circuit work and get into shape. Next week, the team will break up into groups based on their strokes and do more specialized work.King said practice has been hard but necessary to get people in shape and give the freshmen time to learn the ropes.The freshmen have impressed the captains with what they’ve shown.”We have a lot of eager freshmen ready to go, ready to swim fast,” Meyers said. “I’m very excited to see how they’ll do in their first swim meet.”Vieke said having an intrasquad meet is a good way to start the season.”It’s for fun and games to try to get the season rolling,” Vieke said.Meyers said there isn’t as much pressure in dual meets compared to bigger meets.”In dual meets, you’re just racing the person next to you. It’s not really about your time,” Meyers said. “When you’re swimming in a conference meet or a national-level meet, you’re swimming against the clock.”- – – -Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]