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November 18, 2005 > Sports > Swimming tops Green Wave

Swimming tops Green Wave

By Brian Mothersole | For the Thresher

The swim team soundly defeated defending Conference USA champion Tulane University in a dual meet Saturday, winning 10 of the competition’s 14 events en route to a 157-105 victory.

The Owls, who now have a 3-0 dual meet record, head to Atlanta this weekend to compete in the Georgia Tech Invitational, which also includes Florida State, Miami and New Orleans, among others.

“It’s going to be a lot more competitive,” freshman Diane Gu said. “We’ve only had one invite, so Georgia should [let us] see where the other teams are.”

Head coach Seth Huston said this weekend’s three-day, Conference USA Championship-style meet will also help Rice gain experience for longer, endurance-focused competitions.

“We like to swim one or two meets like [the Georgia Invitational] to get the feel of how we need to keep coming back day after day and session after session and keep performing,” Huston said.

And the upcoming meet should help the Owls recover from their recent injury troubles, which have lessened as of late, by giving recovering swimmers more laps against competition. At the Tulane meet, sophomore Brittany Massengale, the only Owl to advance to the NCAA Championships last year, made her 2005-‘06 debut. Still recovering from a shoulder injury, Massengale easily won the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10 minutes, 0.71 seconds, just two seconds behind the school record she set as a freshman and 25 seconds ahead of her nearest competition.

Huston said he will continue to monitor Massengale’s progress.

“She swam very well, but it wasn’t exactly pain-free,” Huston said. “There are still some question marks, but it was a bonus just to get her up in a meet like that.”

SMU, which won the last nine Western Athletic Conference swimming titles, also joins Rice in C-USA this year, but Huston said the win over the defending C-USA champion was still significant.

“Beating Tulane was a good deal,” Huston said. “Any time you can move into a new conference and beat the defending champion, that’s a good sign.”

Gu said the team is more confident after last weekend’s victory.

“We were really nervous coming in because they won the conference last year, and we barely beat them in a dual meet last year,” Gu said, “But we knew we were going to step it up, and we did.”

Sophomore Amy Halsey and Gu both won two individual events. Halsey won the 100 and 200 backstroke, while Gu took the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Sophomores Carey Hain and Jennifer Hill won the 500 freestyle and the 400 individual medley, respectively. Hill had an added incentive in the medley after finishing second in the 200 breaststroke by .01 seconds earlier in the meet. Freshman Carlyann Miller and Hain teamed up to take first and second in the 200 freestyle. A quartet of Gu, Halsey, freshman Skylar Craig and junior Andrea Hurn combined to win the 400 medley relay. Gu, Hurn, Miller, and senior Laura Healey won the 200 freestyle relay.

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