The LSU swimming and diving team hosted its first meet of the season in an intrasquad meet on Friday September 22 in the LSU Natatorium.

The swimming and diving was split between a purple team and a gold team each composed of male and female swimmers and divers. The Purple team defeated the Gold team by a score of 12 event wins to 9 wins.

“It is good to see people step up and race,” said swim coach Dave Geyer. “We have almost 20 freshman that we got to see compete for the first time. It is a long season, and this is the first step in the process.”

Senior swimmer Jake Markham and sophomore diver Juan Celaya-Hernandez captained the Purple team, and junior swimmer Haylee Knight and junior diver Lizzie Cui captained the Gold team.

The intrasquad meet was more relaxed than NCAA meet with men and women competing in the same events and divers competing in a 4×100 swimming relay event.

“It was fun,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “That is the nature of this meet, for them to do something like that. They want to be a part of what the swimmers do. What I want to see next year is a couple of the swimmers to get up on the 10 meter platform.”

The intrasquad meet was the first chance to see the Tigers in competition before the NCAA season starts next week in a tri-meet in the LSU Natatorium.  Female swimmers and divers will compete against Loyola and Tulane, with male swimmers and divers competing against Loyola.

Both Geyer and Shaffer viewed the meet as a chance to get a feel of where the team really is before the season.

“I saw exactly what I expected to see today,” said Shaffer. “There was some inconsistency, some success at things we were working on. I liked what I saw in their spirit and attitude.”

The Tigers were also able to get a feel of where the freshmen swimmers were in their first meet.

Freshman swimmer Leyre Casarin won the 50 yard women’s freestlye and freshman Cameron Karkoska won the 200 yard intermedley.

“It is one of the main events for freshman,” Geyer said. “So, we give them the opportunities and make sure we get to see what we want to see from them.”

LSU fans will be able to watch the Tigers in the Natatorium after the tri-meet, just one more time when the Tigers host SEC rival Texas A&M on January, 20.

The schedule takes LSU away from home for most of their meets and the SEC Championships in February and NCAA Championships in March.