The LSU swimming and diving team heads into another home conference match Saturday at 11 a.m. against the Universities of Alabama and Arkansas hoping to pull off its first conference win.
Last weekend, the Tigers fell to Tennessee in a meet that came down to the women’s relay. The LSU women’s team had battled back from their 20-point deficit to hold a chance in taking the meet from the Tennessee Volunteers. It came down to the 400-yard relay and unfortunately the first hand to the wall was not a Tiger. The injury-stricken Tiger women lost by a narrow margin of 15 points.
“If we would have won the relay we would have won the meet by one point,” said head coach Jeff Cavana. “Our women fought hard. They really battled back well to bring it that close.”
According to Cavana, the women had trouble early on with the 200 and 50-yard freestyle events. In the 50-yard race it came down to one hundredth of a second.
In their last competition, University of Arkansas took the titles in the 200 and 50-yard freestyles with good performances by Cheyne Bees, and Peggy Stoner.
LSU senior Chere Richards and sophomore Lauren Ostroski missed the Tennessee meet due to injuries but are expected to return to the pool this weekend. However, senior diver Barb Gorst, who was also missing last weekend, is not expected to dive on Saturday.
Diving coach Doug Shaffer said he was pleased with how his team did against the Vols even though the diving team merely consisted of Jessica Wantz and Kyle VanArsdall due to injuries to Gorst and Michelle Coryelle.
“Both Kyle and Jessica did really well,” Shaffer said. “We’re looking for them to continue improving.”
Once again, the Tigers face stiff competition as both Alabama’s men’s and women’s teams are ranked in the top 25.
The men’s team also added a loss last weekend against Tennessee. It will only be competing against the 18th-ranked Alabama this weekend as Arkansas does not have a men’s swimming or diving team.
Leading the Alabama men will be All-American and 2000 Olympian Stefan Gherghel. Gherghel won the 2002 NCAA Championship in the 200-yard butterfly.