During the same weekend the LSU soccer team fell to the Florida State Seminoles, the LSU swimming and diving teams finished second, out of a field of seven, to the Seminoles at the 2007 Georgia Tech Fall Invitational. The No. 19 Tigers were in first place after Friday’s competition with a score of 303 points. The No. 24 Seminoles were in a close second scoring 301 points. The Tigers increased their lead Saturday with a combined score of 650 to Florida State’s 636. Florida State was able to come back and win the invite by a margin of 20 with a total score of 928. “It was a little disappointing,” said senior Kevin Braud. “But at the same time everybody swam pretty well.” The Lady Tigers held second through the first two days of competitions with a score of 589, trailing Florida State by 185 going in to Sunday’s events. The No. 24 Lady Seminoles increased their lead Sunday, and the Lady Tigers solidified their hold on second with final scores of 1,127 and 812, respectively. LSU Junior Julius Gloeckner took first place in the 500-yard free, and second in the 200-yard individual medley. LSU senior Miko Malberg took first in the 100-yard freestyle and second in the 50-yard freestyle, but he swam season best times in both events with a 44.46 in the 100 and a 19.85 in the 50. “[Malberg] had good swims, and some of the girls had some good swims,” said LSU coach Adam Schmitt. “Overall, what we did was just perform better at night. We just really had some great swims, and the two relay wins were really big for us.” Juniors Katie Gilmore and Katherine Noland tied for first in the 50-yard freestyle. Freshman Jane Trepp and junior Monica McJunkin took the next top two spots in the event, respectively. The four also won the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays. “Overall a great showing of where we are in our season,” Schmitt said. “We still have some work to do, but I think we had a great showing. ” Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers finished more than 200 points ahead of third place finishers North Carolina State. LSU will go to Florida State on Jan 11 and coach Schmitt expressed optimism in his teams performance against unfamiliar opponents. “We are going to see Florida State again in a dual meet,” Schmitt said. “Of course that is a different scenario, in a couple of months, but in this setting to be able to take away some wins in the relays and do some of our best times we have done this season is definitely a positive.”
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