The LSU women’s swimming and diving team wrapped up its season with a 17th place finish, while the men finished 28th at the the 2007 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Senior diver Hali Saucier and freshman diver Rachel Ware earned first-team All-America honors in platform diving, and the LSU women’s All-American 400 freestyle relay broke the school record. “It was rewarding to see the preparation pay off,” Saucier said. “I have had some disappointments in the past which made achieving my goals that much sweeter. I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish.” For the men, sophomore Julius Gloeckner earned All-America honors for the third time in his career as he attained all 15 of the Tigers’ points. Weeks before, at the SEC Championships in Athens, Ga., he broke an unprecedented three school records. DIVING The LSU women’s diving team lived up to expectations in 2007. Saucier, a senior co-captain, wraps up her career with a first-team All-America honor, a 3-meter NCAA regional championship and a school record score in the 3-meter dual-meet format. She was also a triple finalist at the 2007 Southeastern Conference Championships. On the men’s side, sophomore Nathan Schreiber was the Tigers’ highest finisher, as he qualified for the finals of the 1-meter, to finish 15th. Team captain and four-year letterman Andrew Keane provided the experience. The senior was the highest LSU finisher on the platform at the 2006 NCAA Zone B Championships and the 2007 SEC Championships. He also won his team’s Stripes Award, which goes to the person with the highest work ethic in the pool, weight room and classroom. “The season was another step in the right direction,” he said. “We had much better dual meet success, and the team finally got excited and started thinking that we could win a lot more than the recent past. If the team can continue to build on this success and attitude, it should only get better.” Saucier and Ware capped their first NCAA Championships with first-team All-America honors in the platform. Ware becomes only the third freshman in school history to earn multiple All-America accolades joining the likes of Ashley Culpepper (1998) and Alison Maisch (1986). They become the first platform All-Americans since Barb Gorst earned a top-eight finish in 2002.
SWIMMING The Lady Tiger swimmers built on the strong performances in the diving well to propel them to their highest NCAA finish since 2001. Senior swimmer Colleen Bertirotti said the differences in this season’s finish were readily apparent. “We had more girls there, and we had more relay scoring,” Bertirotti said. “We did better at SECs than we have since I’ve been here.” LSU’s 400 free relay team of Katherine Noland, Bertirotti, Katie Gilmore and Sabrina Messmer shattered the school record in the event by an astounding five seconds. The group posted a clocking of 3:17.92 in the prelims to qualify for the finals. “I was happy with our times,” Bertirotti said. “I did well on the relays, and that’s where we score the most points. I’m just sad. Now I won’t be a part of it next year.” That time broke the old mark of 3:22.21 set by Noland, Bertirotti, Gilmore and Heather Brand last season. The Lady Tigers shattered the school record in the 200 free relay while earning All-America honors. In the finals, the relay secured honorable mention All-America status with a 13th place finish. It marked the first top-16 finish for the Lady Tigers in the 400 free relay since 1997. For Bertirotti, the honors were a great way to close out her career this weekend. The San Antonio, Texas, native leaves with three All-America honors, three relay school records and two all-time top-five individual school times in the 50 and 100 free. All three of LSU’s lady swimmers in the 100 free – Gilmore, Noland and Bertirotti – posted career-fast times that moved them up in the school’s all-time top 10. Gloeckner set the bar high for the LSU men, leading by example and dominating competition. At the SEC Championships in Athens, Ga., Gloeckner broke three school records. He eclipsed his own career mark in the 400 individual medley by three full seconds, posting the third-fastest time in the nation with a preliminary swim of 3:46.84. Gloeckner continued his sweep of IM event records with a time of 1:47.26. A week later, at NCAA Championships, he reset his third record with a time of 1:45.26 in the 200 butterfly preliminaries. This past weekend at the 2007 Spring Championships in East Meadow, N.Y., sophomore Miko Malberg placed fourth in the 50 yard freestyle. Malberg, a native of Estonia, made his country’s World-Wide Standards (FINA) cuts and qualified to participate on the Estonian swim team in the 2008 Olympics. That time also qualifies him to swim at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand, this summer.
—–Contact Jay Potter at [email protected]