Finishing up an impressive regular season, the LSU Swimming and Diving team heads into their toughest challenge yet — the SEC championships.

The 2019 SEC championships will be taking place in Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Georgia. This will be the bulldogs first time hosting the championships since 2014.

This tournament will be a five-day meet from Feb. 19-23. The Tigers will be facing all members of the Southeastern Conference except for the Vanderbilt Commodores, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels.

The Tigers are looking to get revenge on the Texas A&M Aggies, the Florida Gators and the Kentucky Wildcats, after losing to them in the regular season. This will not be an easy task as the Gators are the defending men’s SEC champions, and the Aggies are the defending women’s SEC champions.

The last time the Tigers were in action was during the time trial races at the  beginning of February. During this race, the Tigers broke many personal bests and team bests, giving them a great amount of confidence going into this week’s SEC matchups.

LSU will need to put aside all of the noise and the hype of the tournament and just focus on doing what they do best. This should not be an issue for the Tigers as the majority of the team are seasoned swimmers who have been to the SEC tournament before.

Senior breaststroke swimmer Lauren Thompson said the SEC tournament is her favorite meet of the season, as it is so much fun to see everyone from all the SEC schools, and she can’t wait for the freshman and new members of the LSU team to get to experience this fun time.

The men’s team has not won the tournament since 1988, while the women’s team has never claimed a conference championship.

The swimming rotation will begin with the women, while the diving rotation will begin with the men. The prelims will begin on Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. The whole championship series will be broadcast on the SEC network.