The LSU Tigers hosted the Incarnate Word Cardinals on Saturday in a battle of Division I, Interstate 10 opponents. The hosts came away with a 203-92 win on the women’s side and a 188-104 win on the men’s side.
Those scores were boosted by the LSU men exhibitioning the last two events, including a 1-2 finish in the 200 free relay.
Women’s Meet
Being a home meet, the LSU Tigers for the most part were using Saturday as an opportunity to race rather than focus on the numbers on the scoreboard. They still put up some solid times, however, in their last meet before the mid-season Art Adamson Invitational at Texas A&M.
“We talked about making the most of our opportunity in the water today,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “We were able to respond to some different things today and it was a good team victory.”
Junior Megan Cox swept the women’s butterfly races, with a 2:01.80 in the yard fly and a 55.62 in the 100 fly. Those were both lifetime bests for a swimmer who is typically an IM’er and freestyler.
This is a bit of a revelation for her, and another very good butterfly piece for the Tigers. LSU actually has the #2 100 butterflier in the country, Amber Carter, and #16 100 butterflier in the country, Kara Kopcso. Neither of them swam the 100 fly on Saturday, but Carter did swim the 200 fly.
In that 200 fly, Carter placed 2nd in 2:03.90. She swims this 200 fly once a season, and every season, her results almost look like a timing error, except they’re not.
A comparison of splits between Cox and Carter:
- Megan Cox: 28.14/30.70/31.11/31.85 = 2:01.80
- Amber Carter: 25.62/29.93/32.30/36.05 = 2:03.90
Those splits by 100 for Carter are 55.5/1:08.3. None-the-less, that is a best time for her, and shows just how good she has the potential to be in the 100 fly at the end of this season.
That was one of three events for her, and the only individual: she split 24.29 on the Tigers’ winning 200 yard medley relay (1:41.96); and 23.33 in the 50 free leading off the winning 200 yard free relay (1:36.01).
Kopcso, meanwhile, won the 200 free (1:50.86) and 400 IM (4:28.92). Coming in 2nd place in that 1000 free, also swimming off events, was school-record-holding backstroker Caley Oquist (4:30.04), who also won the 1000 free in 10:28.92.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, relied on swims from sprinter Lana Nguyen, who has been a rock through a tough early-season schedule for UIW, for big scoring. She took 2nd in the 50 free in 23.68, behind only LSU’s Leah Troskot (23.55); Nguyen came back after a diving break to win the 100 free in 52.25, with LSU’s Jane MacDougall placing 2nd in 52.48.
Incarnate Word’s other win in the women’s events came from Celeste Morgen, who won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:21.62.
Men’s Meet Recap
The LSU men won 13 out of 16 events on the day, ignoring exhibitions, and like their women earned a lot of those while swimming off-specialty events.
Frank Greeff, most typically a butterflier, is also a very important part of the LSU free relays, worked on that part of his schedule on Saturday. He first won the 200 free with a 1:39.91, and then added a 45.82 in the 100 free. As compared to his standard mid-season times, those are very good results for him.
Not everyone was swimming off events, however. Sophomore Silas Dejean performed very well in the 100 (55.41) and 200 (2:02.00) yard breaststrokes, including by a whopping seven seconds in the latter.
The Incarnate Word wins came mostly in the longer events; Connor Hennessy won the men’s 1000 free in 9:29.48, and David Moore won in both the men’s 400 IM in 4:01.56 and men’s 200 fly in 1:51.69.
That 200 fly was a very good battle against LSU’s Logan Rysemus (1:51.82). Rysemus had better splits in three out of the four 50’s, but Moore was unmatchable on the third 50, and that’s where he earned the win with a 28.86 split.
Incarnate Word’s next meet will be the Texas Invite in early December.