Whether at home or 900 miles away, opportunity awaits LSU’s female swimmers.The Lady Tigers have worked all season to get to West Lafayette, Ind., the site of the 2010 Women’s NCAA Championship. Now they have a chance to take it a step further with a strong showing in the next three days.Five swimmers – junior Jane Trepp, freshman Amanda Kendall, sophomores Mary Beck, Morgan McGee and Samantha Goates – will represent LSU. Combined they will swim four relays and eight individual events.The NCAA meet is the culmination of a season of hard work for the Lady Tigers.”We’ve all put in a lot of effort,” McGee said.Trepp, a three-time NCAA relay All-American, will swim the 50-yard freestyle today before competing in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke Friday.She has three top-25 seedings going into the preliminaries and is currently ranked No. 13 in the 50-yard freestyle, No. 24 in the 100-yard breaststroke and No. 16 in the 100-yard butterfly.Beck is returning to the NCAA championships for the second year. She also has a top-25 seeding, ranking No. 24 in the 200-yard individual medley which she will swim Thursday.She will also participate in the 100-and 200-yard backstroke, with No. 32 and No. 41 seedings, respectively.The other Lady Tigers are swimming in their first NCAA championship.McGee said the SEC Championship is the biggest meet she’s been to so far, but said she thinks the NCAA’s will be a little more low key because it splits the men and women’s teams into separate weeks of competition.The Lady Tigers will face teams they’ve never swam against.”There will be a lot of people I’ve swam with at SECs, but there will be a lot of teams we’ve never swam before, like Cal and USC,” McGee said. “A lot of people I’ll be racing for the first time.” McGee ranks No. 50 in the 100-yard backstroke and No. 49 in the 100-yard butterfly.Goates has a No. 63 seed in the 100-yard freestyle and Kendall will race in three individual events. The freshman freestyler is seeded No. 44 in the 50-yard freestyle, No. 38 in the 100-yard freestyle and No. 58 in the 200-yard freestyle.LSU coach Adam Schmitt said he foresees a good showing if the Lady Tigers swim at the top of their game.”I believe we have a strong, talented group of women, and I could see us making a big impact at the meet,” Schmitt said. “Of course, we need to be at our best this weekend against some very tough opponents, but I think we will represent LSU proudly.”Goates said placing in the top eight is one of LSU’s main goals, particularly in the 200-yard freestyle relay, where the Lady Tigers are ranked No. 12. The relay teams are subject to change, but all five women are expected to participate in at least one of the four relays.Preliminaries for the meet will begin at 10 a.m. each day with finals following at 6 p.m.
 
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