After presenting a number of outstanding performances, the LSU men’s and women’s swimming teams returned home from the Nike Cup Invitational, Nov. 21-23, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Juniors Stephanie Smith and Evan Martinec led their respective squads, which finished fifth place in both the men’s and women’s competitions. The Tigers placed fifth out of ten teams without the help of the diving team which competed at the Minnesota Diving Invitational last weekend.
Shattering her own school record by more than four seconds, Smith took first place in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:21.41. The victory also qualified Smith to compete in the NCAA Championships in March.
Another school-record holder, Evan Martinec, took first place in the 100-yard backstroke competition finishing in 48.05 seconds.
LSU’s Laura Jo Leininger also had a great meet, finishing third in the women’s 100-yard butterfly competition with an NCAA-qualifying time of 55.06 seconds. Two other NCAA qualifiers, Cissy Schepens and Lindsay Staak, took second-place finishes in the 200 yard-breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke, respectively.
For the men’s team, a pair of second-place finishes were given to Mike Jotautas and Francisco Paez of LSU. Jotautas finished in 49.03 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly super final competition, while Paez finished in a time of 44.69 in the 100-yard freestyle to qualify for NCAA’s. Paez was also a member of the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay with Chris Stanczyk, Martin Latz and Jan Minartz which took fourth place in the event.
The women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Donna Leslie, Julie Johnson, Leininger and Heather Brand, finished in sixth place.
The swimming teams are scheduled to compete Dec. 16 in Tampa, Fla. against Tampa and Indianapolis. They will then have a break until after the New Year’s when they resume the rest of their season.