Chants of “Let’s go Purple” and “Let’s go Gold” echoed through the LSU Natatorium on Friday as the swimming and diving teams held their annual Purple & Gold Intrasquad meet.
The coaches split the swimming and diving teams into two squads, Purple and Gold, dividing the talent equally so the meet would be competitive.
After a long day of competition, the Purple squad took home the bragging rights, beating the Gold squad by a score of 117-77.
LSU diving coach Doug Shaffer said the coaching staff was pleased with what they saw from their teams and are looking ahead to the team’s next competitions.
“At this point of the season we could have seen any number of results,” Shaffer said. “I’m encouraged with a lot of things I saw today.
The intrasquad meet was a collection of three competitions — running relays, diving and swimming relays.
The Gold squad held a 16-13 lead over the Purple squad after the running relays. The Purple squad won the diving competition, giving it a 26-22 lead over the Gold squad going into the swimming competition.
The Purple squad ran away with the victory in the swimming relays portion, tallying 91 points to the Gold squad’s 55 and claiming the 117-77 victory.
Swimming coach Dave Geyer said he was excited by the performance of the freshmen men.
“I’ve been talking a lot about our freshmen guys having some definite potential in the water, and seeing them race today, we’re excited,” Geyer said.
On the women’s side, Geyer said junior swimmer Amanda Kendall “looks amazing,” and junior swimmer Sara Haley “looks great in the water.”
“I think the freshmen [women] definitely have the skills to develop, they’re just not there at this time,” Geyer said.
Shaffer said he saw his team step up and compete through the adversity of being tired and sore.
“We had real good success on the platform, and that was encouraging to see,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer said the divers will continue working on strength and conditioning while adding new dives to their repertoire.
“We’ll be working more on our competition list and aiming it towards the dual meet and championship season,” Shaffer said.
The team captains for the meet were voted on by their peers and will be the captains for the entire season.
 
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Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]