Though LSU came to town, there were no signs of the team’s purple and gold. Instead, Saturday’s color was pink, in support of women’s breast cancer. The UA men and women’s swimming and diving teams came in prepared for another tough conference rival.
The men entered this meet coming off a 133-110 victory against in-state rival Auburn, while the women looked for a bounce-back performance after a 169-74 loss to Auburn Oct. 9.
It took a team effort for the men beat LSU 161-139, improving the team’s season record in dual meets to 2-0.
Senior Catalin Cosma once again put up good performances, taking first in the 500-meter freestyle (4:32.02) and the 1,000-meter freestyle (9:20.38) while finishing second in the 200 IM [individual medley], posting a time of 1:54.62.
Cosma received help from teammate junior Joe Ziegler, who placed first in the 200-meter freestyle (1:36.76), fourth in the 50-meter freestyle (21.46), and first in 200-meter backstroke (1:49.76).
After beating Auburn and now LSU, the men seem to be on a roll, but they know it’s not going to be an easy task to keep their momentum going throughout the season.
“I feel if our team goes into the water knowing they can improve, we can keep the momentum,” Ziegler said.
“We have a lot of strengths. It seemed our strengths were their weaknesses, but at the same time, they did show us what some of our weaknesses were.”
Ziegler could not deny he was happy when he saw the 133-110 score, in their favor, posted on the scoreboard after the meet.
“I’m happy we won,” Ziegler said. “Now we’re 2-0. I’m excited about where we’re headed and how everyone could contribute, but we still need to improve.”
The men also received some help from senior diver Adam Booher. Booher won the 1-meter diving with 352.0 points and the 3-meter diving with 389.40 points.
While the men squeaked by LSU, the women struggled to be consistent against a strong LSU women’s team, losing 198-101.
Freshmen Lauren Piper came out and posted some good times, finishing first in the 100-meter backstroke (57.01), second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:03.71 and fifth place in the 200 IM with a time of 2:10.65.
The women also got help from freshman diver Callan Buck who won the 3-meter diving, scoring 310.5 points. Despite what the scoreboard read after the meet, Buck assures their hard work paid off, but there is still more to improve on.
“We still have a long way to go to get where we want to be,” Buck said. “If we start working together as a team we can improve for the next meet.”
Head coach Eric McIlquham was pleased with the performance by the team against LSU.
“We did a nice job,” McIlquham said. “We had nice finishes, but we need to swim more aggressively.”
The Tide will have plenty of time to practice and try improving on their weaknesses, as the team will resume swimming at the UT Invitational in Knoxville, Tenn., on Nov. 18-20.
