LSU’s swim and dive staff competed within the 2022 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships contained in the Jones Aquatic Heart on the College of Tennessee’s campus in Knoxville on February 15-19. The SEC Championships showcased swimming and diving occasions from Tuesday morning via Saturday evening. LSU’s swim and dive staff was assured heading into the SEC Championships after an awesome meet in opposition to Texas A&M on LSU’s Senior day.
Rick Bishop, attending his first SEC Championship as head swimming coach of the purple and gold, exuded the staff’s confidence saying, “I’m excited for my first SEC Championship with the LSU Tigers. That is going to be an awesome alternative for us to get out and problem ourselves in opposition to the remainder of the convention. We have got an awesome group, and it is going to be an awesome week right here. Geaux Tigers!”
LSU diver Juan Celaya-Hernandez, who is not any stranger to the rostrum, received his sixth SEC Championship Tuesday evening, as he claimed gold on the three-meter springboard for the primary time in his collegiate profession. Celaya-Hernandez certified for the one-meter springboard last with a second-place rating of 356.90. Within the one-meter springboard last, he earned his second podium end of the SEC meet, ending with the bronze and a last rating of 404.25.
Celaya-Hernandez stated, “It was actually shut, there may be loads of vitality right here within the SEC, particularly at this meet with all of the swimmers cheering and the entire crowd going wild. So, that’s somewhat robust in your nerves and your respiration. I’ve been pursuing this for thus lengthy and it’s lastly right here. I’m actually completely satisfied.”
Celaya-Hernandez certified for his third last on the 2022 SEC Championships with a third-place end within the platform prelims. He completed with a rating of 391.05 and took gold within the platform finals. That is his third SEC title on platforms and the seventh SEC Championship title of his LSU profession.
“This can be a shock, positively, I’m not a tower diver, all people is aware of it. It’s a grateful shock as a result of I additionally received right here my freshman 12 months, on the tower, and I set the SEC report so, I used to be fairly completely satisfied.” Celaya-Hernandez stated after he received gold within the platform finals and cemented himself as top-of-the-line divers to ever come via an SEC faculty.
Competing within the one-meter springboard prelims, Chiara Pellacani, a local of Rome, claimed second place with a last rating of 285.80. Pellacani, who lately joined the swimming and diving squad in the beginning of the Spring semester, earned the silver medal within the one-meter springboard last with a mark of 316.70. Within the three-meter springboard last, Chiara Pellacani and Helle Tuxen positioned silver and bronze respectively. Pellacani completed in second with a rating of 356.35. Tuxen took third with a rating of 352.35. Each single LSU diver made an impression and scored for the Tigers.
LSU swimmer Brooks Curry, who swam a powerful cut up of 18.14 Tuesday within the 200-yard medley relay, broke his personal faculty report within the 50-yard free with a time of 18.93. Within the finals, he improved that point to the second-fastest time within the nation, 18.67. His earlier time was recorded on the 2021 SEC Championships, the place he clocked an 18.97. Curry cleared the ‘A’ normal of 18.96, which robotically punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships in Atlanta, his hometown.
On Saturday, Curry continued his spectacular efficiency on the 2022 SEC championships by claiming gold within the 100-yard free whereas breaking three data with a time of 40.99. Along with breaking his personal faculty report of 41.77, Curry eased by Caeleb Dressel’s SEC meet report and set a brand new pool report for the Jones Aquatic Heart. His time additionally cleared the NCAA ‘A’ normal for the occasion, robotically qualifying him for his third occasion within the NCAA Championships. Within the 100 yard-free prelims, he took first place with a time of 41.82. His time of 40.99 within the last ranks first within the nation and is the most effective time on LSU’s all-time prime ten listing.
Jenna Bridges, an enhancing freshman on this 12 months’s squad, has continued to impress throughout her first season within the purple and gold. Within the ‘C’ last for the 200-yard fly, Bridges completed second with a time of 1:57.07. Bridges’s time strikes her as much as No. 3 on the occasion’s top-10 instances. Within the prelims for the 500-yard free, she swam a time of 4:44.66, which is over a full second quicker than the earlier record-holder, Devon Dabney’s 4:45.89. Her program-best time of 4:44.66 certified her for the ‘B’ last and positioned her tenth within the prelims. Bridges broke her personal LSU report within the finals with a time of 4:43.87. At her first SEC Championships, Bridges etched her identify into LSU’s all-time prime 10 listing two instances and now owns first and second place on the listing within the 500-yard free.
Within the 200-yard IM for the boys, Emil Hassling completed fifteenth with a time of 1:44.99 and that point moved him into 2nd on LSU’s all-time top-10 listing for the occasion. The time of 1:44.99 was tenths of a second shy from breaking LSU’s 200-yard IM report. Within the ‘B’ last, Hassling formally broke the report with a time of 4:44.74. He now holds the quickest males’s 200-yard IM time in LSU program historical past.
Within the 200-yard IM for the ladies, Hannah Bellina led the best way for the Tigers, ending in thirty first place with a time of two:01.18, which was a private greatest. Within the 400-yard IM, Jolee Liles positioned nineteenth with a time of 4:14.02. Her time moved her to the No. 5 spot on LSU’s all-time top-10 for the occasion. Liles additionally swam within the 1650-free and clocked a 16:21.02. With that point, Liles now holds the brand new LSU faculty report for the occasion, beforehand held by Stephanie Smith.
Within the 200-yard free, Katarina Milutinovich certified for the ‘C’ last with a time of twenty-two.42. Her time climbed within the all-time top-10 listing for the occasion from tenth to fifth. Her last time dropped by four-tenths of a second, and she or he positioned tenth with a time of 1:46.05. Milutinovich positioned eleventh within the 100-yard free with a time of 48.52. Her time ties Jane Trepp’s because the fourth-fastest time in program historical past for the occasion. Within the 50-yard free, Natalie Kucsan’s 20.70 locations her No. 10 time on LSU’s all-time top-10 listing.
Gavin Rogers led the Tigers within the males’s 200-yard fly and positioned twenty seventh with a time of 1:46.99. That point sits at No. 10 on LSU’s all-time listing for the occasion. All recording private data, Julian Norman positioned thirty fourth with a time of 1:48.54, David Boylan positioned thirty sixth with a time of 1:48.78, and Ryan Warmbier completed thirty ninth with a time of 1:50.26.
Within the 100-yard breaststroke, Emilie Boll certified for the ‘B’ last. Boll completed in eleventh place within the prelims with a time of 1:00.03. Her time presently holds the No. 6 spot on the all-time LSU listing for the occasion. Boll positioned thirteenth within the 100-yard breaststroke ‘B’ last. Her time of 59.92 locations her ninth-ranked all-time in LSU program historical past. She now holds two of the highest ten all-time data in LSU historical past for the ladies’s 100-yard breaststroke. Mitch Mason, the varsity report holder within the males’s 100-yard breaststroke, certified for the ‘A’ last with a prelim time of 52.51. Within the finals, he improved and completed in seventh with a time of 52.46.
The relay staff for the boys’s 200-yard medley relay, consisting of Griffin Curtis, Mitch Mason, Emil Hassling and Brooks Curry, broke the varsity report with a time of 1:24.79. Curry’s cut up time was the quickest of the freestyle swimmers, clocking an 18.14. Within the 400-yard medley relay, the ladies positioned eleventh with a time of three:36.27 and the boys claimed seventh with a time of three:07.31.
The Tigers’ postseason journey continues with LSU divers taking part within the NCAA regionals beginning on Monday, March 7 and concluding on Wednesday, March 9. The NCAA Girls’s Swimming and Diving Championships start March 16 and conclude March 19, whereas the Males’s Swimming and Diving Championships start March 23 and finish March 26.