Freshmen are called fish and that’s exactly what the LSU swimming and diving team’s freshmen might be confused with.In the first half of the Tigers’ (1-4, 0-3) and Lady Tigers’ (2-4, 0-3) season, the freshmen have turned in dominating performances, which have the teams optimistic despite their records.   “We have had some seriously tough competition so far this season and came very close to winning a couple of them,” LSU freshman Craig Hamilton said after the Tigers’ first victory.The Tigers dropped their first four tightly contested dual meets, against Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama and Florida State before taking a dominating victory against the University of New Orleans.”It definitely feels good after 0-4 to get that win in,” said junior Hannes Heyl after the victory.The Tigers then took first place in the Cougar Classic and blew out opponents Southern Methodist, UNLV and Incarnate Word.LSU’s highly touted freshmen, Craig Hamilton and Andrei Tuomola, were impressive from the season’s start. Tuomola won his first two individual events as a Tiger and has established himself as a dominant sprinter for LSU.  Hamilton also won his first two events and has established himself as one of the top distance swimmers in recent years for LSU. He also broke one of the nine pool records that LSU swimmers took down in New Orleans.His season best time of 4 minutes and 26.64 seconds in the 500 free and 15 minutes and 29.79 seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle rank fourth all time in school history, and his season best time of 9 minutes and 15.64 second ranks third for the 1,000-yard free all-time in school history.Hamilton, along with junior Luis Gonzalez, combined to make the distance events some of LSU’s deepest.The Lady Tigers dropped their first two dual meets before notching a victory against Tulane. “I thought we had a solid meet, especially considering most of our swimmers swam their off events,” LSU assistant coach Jessica Botzum said in a new release after the victory. “Our captains, Jane Trepp and Kannon Betzen swam well today, and I thought we had some nice efforts from a number of our freshmen.” The Lady Tigers dropped two more meets before picking up a win against UNO.  “We are a young team,” LSU coach Adam Schmitt said in a news release after a loss to Florida State. “I thought we responded well in our first road trip. As we continue to grow and develop, I think we’ll get better and better.”Freshman Amanda Kendall is dominating the competition in her first season. Kendall has the Lady Tigers top 100-yard freestyle time of the season with a time of 50.77 seconds. She also has the second fastest 50-yard freestyle time of the season at 23.33 seconds. Freshman Sara Haley swam the top 200-yard butterfly time of the season in her first collegiate meet against Tennessee with a time of 1 minute and 58.81 seconds. Newcomer Mary Beck has swam top times in five individual events and has already broken two school records. The 200-yard IM record she broke had been standing since 1995. Beck’s 100-yard backstroke time is the second fastest in school history.The freshmen haven’t been the only strong contributors this season. Some LSU veterans have also been big for the Tigers and Lady Tigers. Trepp and Heyl have put together strong seasons so far. Trepp has the Lady Tigers’ season best times in the 50 free, 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard butterfly.  The Tigers and Lady Tigers have garnered many NCAA ‘B’ Cuts and Schmitt said he was very excited about the second half of the season.”We’ve had a good start to our season over the past couple of months, and we hope to continue training well for the second half,” Schmitt said in a news release after the Cougar Classic.  —-Contact Amos Morale at [email protected]