The LSU swimming and diving teams experienced their first dual meet loss of the season on Friday, falling to the Florida Gators at the Stephen O’Connell Center in Gainesville. The women’s team was outscored 174-87, while the men lost 156-105. Florida secured victories in 19 of the 28 events.
The competition began with the women’s 200-medley relay, where LSU’s A-squad—Zoe Carlos-Broc, Sabrina Lyn, Avery Littlfeild, and Michaela de Villiers—finished second with a time of 1:41.11. The B-squad placed third at 1:42.77. On the men’s side, Stepan Goncharov, Volodymyr Lisovets, Diggory Dillingham, and Jere Hribar won their event with a time of 1:25.63.
In distance freestyle events, Nicole Santuliana finished second in the women’s 1000-free (10:07.50) and third in the 500-free (4:55.64). Jacob Pishko took second in the men’s 1000-free (9:10.61) and fourth in the 500-free (4:30.56).
Megan Barnes earned second place in the women’s 200-free with a time of 1:49.59.
Goncharov claimed LSU’s first individual win by taking first place in the men’s 100-backstroke at 46.92 seconds and later finished third in the 200-back (1:50.00). Carlos-Broc was third for LSU in the women’s 100-back (54.56).
Stuart Higdon won the men’s 200-fly with a time of 1:47.99; Caleb Ellis followed closely behind for second place at 1:48.23. Sartori took third for LSU women in that event (2:02.09). In the men’s 100-fly, Ellis and Higdon placed second and third respectively.
LSU achieved wins on both sides of sprint freestyle events as Michaela de Villiers posted winning times of 22.85 seconds (50-free) and 50.50 seconds (100-free) for women; Hribar led for men with times of 19.41 seconds (50-free) and again topped Florida’s Josh Liendo to win the men’s race at both distances.
Grace Palmer finished second for LSU women in the 200-breaststroke (2:15.34), while Lisovets placed fourth among men.
Chloe Cheng was third overall in women’s individual medley with a time of 2:04.47.
Both Tiger A-teams closed out competition by winning their respective heats in the final event—the men’s team finishing their relay at a time of 1:19.59 and women’s team clocking in at 1:32.24.
Junior Guilherme Camossato made his debut for LSU after transferring midseason; he competed across three events alongside junior Levi Thome who also saw his first action this season.
At Tennessee Diving Invitational—which concluded Friday—senior Carson Paul finished fifth overall on men’s three-meter springboard scoring 369.85 points; freshman Eve Nelson was fourth among women on three-meter board scoring 274.90 points before taking third place on platform dive with 223.40 points; Travis Keith rounded out top six finishers among men scoring 291.85 points over three days’ competition.
LSU will next compete against SMU during Senior Day on Saturday January 24th at home inside LSU Natatorium beginning at 10 a.m., which will be their last home meet this season before postseason begins.
