Swimming & Diving Ranked No. 14 In the SwimCloud Mid-Major Poll
Following a successful midseason competition at the Phill Hansel Invitational over the weekend, the Tulane swimming & diving team is ranked No. 14 nationally in the SwimCloud Mid-Major Poll this week.
The program amassed 671.34 points overall in the poll to rank third among the all the schools in the American Conference.
In the American rankings, Tulane is ahead of Marshall (668.62), East Carolina (647.77), Florida Atlantic (581.53), Liberty (565.19), James Madison (494.03), and North Texas (489.77)
In the team’s three-day meet in Houston at the prestigious Phill Hansel Invitational from Nov. 19-21, Tulane had a 108 season bests, 33 lifetime bests, 25 NIC B cuts, three NIC A cuts, nine top-10 school marks and 20 top 10 event marks. The NIC A cuts came from Eliza Lennox in the 50 free (22.63) and the 100 free (53.96) and the 200 medley relay team of Andrea Zeebe, Paula Gaya Bisquerra, Lennox and Rafaela Sumida (1:41.26). The school top 10 marks were recorded by Lennox (3rd - 50 free, 3rd - 100 fly & 2nd – 100 free), Marin Shimkus (6th – 100 back), Bisquerra (4th – 100 breast & 6th in the 200 breast), Ebba Holgersson (6th – 100 breast), Danielle Barberie (4th – 200 breast), and Taylor Cekay (6th – platform diving).
Next, Tulane sends qualifiers to compete in the Open Water Championships in Sarasota, Fla on Dec. 13. The next team competition for the program is at the UNLV Invitational from Dec. 15-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The program finished the 2024-25 season with 54 top 10 school marks including 10 school records. The team also won six events, had 28 overall all conference marks, a placing of third overall at the league championship meet plus saw Head Coach Amanda Caldwell along with her staff being named the American’s Coaching Staff of the Year. The program also had 10 qualify to participate in the National Championship Invitational this season, three divers that earned bids to the Zone D Diving Championship, had four swimmers named to the Academic All-District by the College Sports Communicators and six that were CSCAA Scholar All-Americans. Additionally, the program had nine NCAA ‘B’ cuts, placed fifth at the CSCAA Open Water Championships and rack up 10 American Conference Weekly honors (five swimmers of the week, two freshman swimmers of the week, two freshman divers of the week and one conference diver of the week).
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.