Saturday’s meet was particularly satisfying for LSU’s swimming and diving teams for a number of reasons.
The Tigers not only got their first dual meet win since Jan. 30, but they also got a little retribution in the process by defeating Florida State, 155-145.
The Seminoles (3-1) and the Tigers (1-2) have faced off for nine of the last 10 seasons, missing only 2004. LSU senior Clint Hallum said the two teams have established a good rivalry.
For the second season in a row, the rivalry spawned some exciting meets.
Last season, the Seminoles took the last event of the meet to beat the Tigers. But on Saturday, the Tigers came up on top in the same way, defeating the Seminoles in the final race.
The Lady Tigers (4-1) had a bit more breathing room, winning 12 of 16 events to beat the Lady Seminoles (5-1) by a score of 176-124.
In the days leading up to the meet, LSU swimming coach David Geyer predicted that every point would count.
He was right.
“We knew the men’s meet would be a boxing match. We knew we were going to take some punches or some hits, but how were we going to respond to those hits?” Geyer said in a news release. “We stepped up with some great performances, but overall this was probably the best team performance I’ve seen from LSU in the last six years.”
The Tigers and the Seminoles fought back and forth all day. The Tigers won the 200-yard medley relay to start things off and had strong performances in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke.
But the Seminoles’ depth in the distance events kept things close. The Tigers had only a five-point lead going into the 400-meter relay and needed a win to secure the victory.
The ‘A’ team of sophomore Andrei Tuomola, freshman Michael Saco, junior Martin Jungfleisch and senior Hannes Hey came up big, cruising to a two-second finish over Florida State.
“It’s always a great challenge to swim at LSU,” Florida State coach Neil Harper said in a news release. “Even in defeat we definitely became a better team today. For any partial fan it was a great dual meet to watch.”
LSU’s swimmers weren’t the only ones who needed to be on the top of their game to take down Florida State. Junior diver Matt Vieke said LSU’s diving squad needed to be at its best to defeat the Seminoles’ highly regarded diving team.
Sophomore diver Rebecca St. Germain came in first in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. Vieke took first place in the three-meter.
The Lady Tigers also won the meet against Tulane on Friday night as a tune-up to Florida State. They won 194-98.
 
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]