The Lady Tigers swim team travels to Austin, Texas, March 1 to compete in the Texas-Bevo Invitational. The Texas Longhorns, who just won their fifth straight Big XII conference championship, will host the competition.
LSU assistant coach Lars Jorgensen said LSU’s focus at the competition will not be on the team but rather on individual swimmers.
“It’s a last chance qualifying meet for NCAAs,” Jorgensen said.
Two LSU swimmers already have their places reserved for nationals. Stephanie Smith will swim the 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle events at NCAAs, while Evan Martinec will compete in the 100-yard backstroke.
Those are the only two LSU swimmers who have made “A” cut times and are guaranteed spots at nationals. Other swimmers have made “B” cut times which put them in the running for a chance to compete at nationals but do not guarantee it because only the top “B” cut qualifiers are taken.
Jorgensen said Laura Jo Leininger, 100-yard butterfly, Cissy Schepens, 200-yard breaststroke, Megan Wolters, 200-yard backstroke and Margaret Beadle, 200-yard freestyle, will race to improve their times from their previous “B” cut preliminary times.
Leininger said they take 30 athletes from the “B” cut times and last season she was 31st. Leininger needs to swim the 100-yard butterfly in 54.1 seconds to make the “A” cut.
“It was hard last year, not making it,” Leininger said. “It was a good learning experience, but this year I really feel like I’m going to make it.”
Leininger wants to improve her time by about a second.
“A second sounds like a lot in swimming but at SECs I didn’t swim as well as I’d like,” she said. “So it’s well within my reach.”
Leininger said she thinks it will be helpful to only have to focus on one event this meet since at the SEC Championships she competed in 10 events.
“It’s hard to make it to NCAAs,” Jorgensen said. “It’s not going to be easy.”
However, he felt all four women have the potential to improve their times and move up in the national standings.