Swimming & Diving Set to Open Season at LSU

Friday, September 29

Baton Rouge, LA

6:00 PM

Tulane University

LSU

Sep 28, 2017 | Women's Swimming and Diving

2017-18 Roster | Schedule

NEW ORLEANS – Swimming & diving season begins this weekend at LSU, and head coach Katie Robinson and the Green Wave are hoping to make a splash during the 2017-18 campaign.

"The good thing about this year is that our team is actually operating as a very cohesive unit right now and the support is there," Robinson said. "I really believe with that as our background, we're going to see people who had been on the outskirts of performance taking off this year knowing they have the support of everyone around them."

The Wave will bring back 16 swimmers and divers from last season and add six newcomers for a total roster size of 22.

Tulane is also joined this year by new assistant coaches in Lyle Robelot and Tony Cortright along with graduate assistant Trish Regan. Robelot joined the program in May from North Carolina State while Cortright came to New Orleans in June from Marshall University. Regan was a youth development coach at Carmel Swim Club in Indianapolis before joining the Green Wave.

The team will travel to nearby Baton Rouge on Friday to face LSU and Loyola New Orleans in a tri-meet that begins at 6 p.m. at the LSU Natatorium.

SENIORS
The Green Wave return four experienced seniors this season to a roster that set 13 school records and 26 personal records in 2016-17.

Alex Brindisi, Alex Lakota, Emma Lincoln and Kaitlin Simpson make up the team's senior class. Brindisi ranks fifth in team history in the 100 fly and ninth all-time in the 200 fly while posting her fastest-ever 50 free time at the American Athletic Conference Championship last year. Lakota set a new best in the 1000 free last year. Lincoln had a new personal best in the 100 fly at the LSU Quad Meet in January and was a member of the school-record-setting 800 free relay at the AAC Championship. Lincoln also holds Tulane's 200 free record.

Simpson is Tulane's record holder in the 100 fly and is seventh all-time in the 50 free, 100 free and while also being on the school-record 200 and 400 free relay team and the school-record 200 and 400 medley relay teams.

All four seniors were also on the AAC All-Academic Team in 2016-17.

"It's really hard for me to say who's going to be the standouts this year because we're going have a handful," Robinson said. "We're going to have a harder time saying who's not a standout. We have a lot of strength in all of our classes, and we have some great leadership on our team this year that I think is really helping enhance that team dynamic to support and sustain performance at a high level."

JUNIORS
The Green Wave junior class this year is made up of Lena Hayakawa, Lilly Morgan, Anise Muir, Emily Ramier, Shelly Zelnick and Paris Zhang.

Hayakawa and is second all-time in team history in the 200 breast and third all-time in the 100 breast, while Morgan had personal bests in the 50 free and 100 free at the AAC Championship to close her season.

Muir – one of the Green Wave's two divers in 2017-18 – has the sixth-best 1-meter dive and eighth best 3-meter performance in team history.

Ramier is fifth all-time in Tulane history in the 400 IM and eighth all-time in the 200 IM.

Zelnick is all over the Tulane record book with the school record in the 200 IM and 200 back, the second-fastest time in the 200 free and the sixth-best time in the 100 back. Zelnick was named to the AAC All-Conference Team following her bronze-medal showing in the 200 IM at the championship meet.

Zhang, meanwhile, holds the school record in the 100 back and has swum four of the top six fastest times in the event in program history. She is also fourth all-time at Tulane in the 50 free, fifth in the 100 free and is part of the 100 free, 400 free and 200 medley relay school record teams.

SOPHOMORES
Tulane returns six sophomores: Claire Golba, Olivia Johnson, Jordan Morling, Morgan Tacik, Gabby Vieira and Jessica Weitz.

Golba has the third-best 100 back time in team history and was on the fourth-best 200 medley relay team at Tulane.

Johnson earned herself a spot on the AAC Women's Swimming and Diving All-Conferences Team at year's end. At the AAC Championship in February, Johnson took the silver medal in the 400 IM, breaking her own school record in the event by more than five seconds at 4:12.79. She also competed at the 2017 USA Nationals and World Championship Trials.

Morling set the second-best mark in program history in the 200 back at the AAC Championships in February and is also fourth in team history in the 400 IM. Tacik is the school record holder in the 500 free, second in team history in the 200 fly, third in the 200 free and fourth in the 1000 free.

Vieira posted the seventh-best 100 back in team history at the AAC Championship and is also ninth in team history in the 200 back, third in the 100 fly and part of the second-fastest 400 free relay team in Green Wave history. Weitz set a new personal best in the 100 back and 100 free last year as well as the 50 free. All three of those new PBs came at the AAC Championship.

FRESHMEN
Tulane's six new freshmen come from all over with five Americans from three different states and one swimmer from Norway.

Courtney Barker (Illinois) won a state championship with Township High School and earned all-state and All-American honors. Jeni Griffin (California) was on three consecutive California Division I championship teams and earned All-America honors in the 200 free relay. Kate McDonald (Texas) was an all-state honoree in the 500 free and qualified for nationals in the 200 breast in 2016.

Katie Nicol (California), the Wave's lone freshman diver, competed for the LA Dive Club and earned a first-place finish on tower at the Greg Louganis Invitational. Inger-Ane Schefte (Norway) has won more than 30 medals swimming at the Norwegian Championships and is the 2016 Junior Champion in the 100 long course backstroke. Finally, Ellie Vincent (Texas) is a two-time Texas 6A Region bronze medalist in the 500 free and was named the District 18 female swimmer of the year in 2016.

SCHEDULE
Tulane will face a challenging schedule beginning with Friday's LSU Tri-Meet against the Tigers and Loyola New Orleans. In October, the Wave will take part in dual meets against SMU, West Florida, Rice, FIU and Denver before finishing the fall schedule at the Phill Hansel Invitational in Houston.

The regular season continues in January with meets against Loyola New Orleans, Rice, LSU and Houston. The four-day American Athletic Conference Championships get underway February 14 in Dallas.