The LSU women’s swimming and diving squad swept its way to victory to start the 2011-12 season Friday.
The Lady Tigers won all 16 events to start the season 1-0 with a commanding 193-98 victory against in-state rival Tulane.
“We definitely saw some things in the water that we didn’t see last week [at the intrasquad meet],” said swimming coach Dave Geyer. “We saw a little bit more of a racing edge from some of our board.”
Bettridge met one of her goals Friday and nearly accomplished the other. The Austin, Texas, native qualified for the NCAA Regionals and her one-meter performance of 318.0 was just 13 points off the school record.
She posted a 268.57 in the three-meter competition.
Junior Jana Ruimerman swam in the 1,000-yard freestyle for the first time at LSU and finished first with a time of 10:20.74. Geyer said Ruimerman will swim the 1,000 free again later in the season to help the team.
“We talked about it before the meet and the last time she swam the 1000 free was when she was about 15 or 16,” Geyer said. “A light bulb went off in my head to experiment a little bit this week and give her that trial run and play with it and see where it us.”
The men’s and women’s squads return to action Oct. 14 when they take on Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. The following day, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will open Southeastern Conference competition against Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
 
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Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]