The LSU men’s swimming and diving team fell to No. 2 Stanford in a close season opener Friday.
The Cardinal took a seven-point lead into the final relay, then edged out the Tigers by 0.91 seconds to win the event and the meet, 139-123.
“I don’t like losing, and I’m sure my players don’t like losing,” said LSU coach Adam Schmitt. “But overall they have to be pretty satisfied, with this high caliber of opponent, to be able to take it down to the last relay. It was pretty exciting.”
After leading the entire relay, LSU junior Julius Gloeckner could not edge out Stanford sophomore Dan Priestley for the win.
“Our last relay was a total surprise,” Stanford coach Skip Kenny said. “We just had some people step up and do some things that we didn’t expect and that’s sort of what swimming for the team is about.”
Stanford won both the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays and took the top three spots in the both the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke. The Tigers placed first in seven events and received a strong showing from their freshmen.
“It is still early in our season,” Schmitt said. “We are all doing the heavy training mode, and we haven’t done any sprinting yet, so this was a chance for both teams to see what they have.”
The Tigers have eight freshmen on the men’s team and five freshmen on the women’s.
Freshmen distance swimmers Luis Gonzales and Clint Hallum finished first and second respectively in both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle. Hallum finished more than 20 seconds faster than Stanford’s David Mosko, in both events and Gonzales’ time of 9:29.36 was more than 10 seconds faster than Hallum’s in the 1,000-yard free.
“Luis Gonzales was someone that was highly recruited by us,” Schmitt said. “He is from Mexico. I went down and visited him and he was one that we knew coming in would make an impact for our distance group, especially for some of the dual meets and hopefully the NCAA’s.”
Schmitt said he expects the team’s veterans to contribute as well.
“[Senior] Miko Malberg and [junior] Christoph [Lubenau] are NCAA qualifiers,” Schmitt said. “Luis and some of the other new talent really are going to have an opportunity to train here and get better. It is really exciting the men’s team finally had a full squad and finally had a full compliment of events.”
Malberg placed first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.52. He also placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.00. This past season Malberg qualified for the NCAA Championships and placed 21st with a personal best of 19.69 in the 50-yard freestyle.
Lubenau won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.30. He also placed in the NCAA’s. Lubenau swam a 47.54 in the 100-yard butterfly to earn 21st place.
Gloeckner placed first in two of his three events including a come-from-behind victory in the 400-yard individual medley.
“I try to go all out on the hundred freestyle” Gloeckner said. “It felt good to catch someone up like that.”
Gloeckner holds the school records in the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly. He is a first team all-American who placed third this past season in the 400-yard individual medley at the Southeastern Conference Championships and has been named LSU Male Athlete of the Week three times.
Although the Tigers placed second in both relays, Schmitt did not express much concern heading into the new season.
“On those relays you kind of have to make an educated guess on who to put in what leg [of the relay],” Schmitt said. “I learned a lot from my team to help me in future meets.”
The Lady Tigers’ swimming and diving team will open their season Friday at the Purple and Gold Intrasquad. Men’s diving will also see their first action at this time.
“Being my alma mater, I wanted to bring respect back to LSU swimming and diving,” Schmitt said. “I think we have done that, and I think that our staff is doing a great job.”
—-Contact Amos Morale at [email protected]