Swimmers split road meets, prepare to face Houston and LSU
On the road for the first time in 2008, the swim team struggled to keep pace with the defending Conference USA champions, Southern Methodist University, falling 125-75 to the 12th-ranked Mustangs last Friday. Despite the disappointing performance against SMU, Rice rallied to beat the University of North Texas by a 154-134 margin the next morning to begin its longest road swing of the year.
The Owls do not have far to travel this weekend. Today and tomorrow, Rice (8-4) will take on the University of Houston for a two-day meet at the UH Rec Center. Today’s meet begins at 5 p.m. and tomorrow’s begins at 11 a.m. Having met the Cougars once already at the Phill Hansel Duals back in November, the Owls are confident they can once again defeat their opponent.
“Houston always puts up a good fight when they swim us,” assistant coach Jada Hallmark (Sid ‘01) said. “If we can just put together some good, smart races and a little bit of speed I think we will definitely come out on top.”
Louisiana State University will also face Rice and UH at the same times on Friday and Saturday. Swimming in the Southeastern Conference, the Tigers are ranked 24th in the nation. Despite that high ranking, the Owls do not seem fazed after having competed against ranked teams over the last two weekends.
“This week we’re kind of laying low a little bit, trying to recuperate form the last couple of weeks of training and hopefully we’ll have a little bit of rest behind us … and some momentum going in to Friday and Saturday’s meets,” Hallmark said.
Although they lost to SMU, the Owls performed well in many races. Senior Brittany Massengale, who was named Conference USA Swimmer of the Week Jan. 23, came in first and junior Caitlin Warner came in second in the 1,000-yard freestyle. The 200-freestyle relay team of juniors Keri Hyde, Skylar Craig, Carlyann Miller and Diane Gu also snagged first place. In addition, Miller took second in the 100-freestyle with a time of 52.80 seconds. Last week’s C-USA Swimmer of the Week, senior Pam Zelnick, also had an impressive finish as she snatched second place away from the Mustangs in the 100-breaststroke.
“We probably could have swam better but it wasn’t a devastating loss,” Gu said. “We want to win as many dual meets as we can, but our main focus is on conference and getting ready for that so each weekend we’re racing is helping us get there.”
Against North Texas (2-8) the next day, the Owls overcame the 30-point deficit — stemming directly to their lack of a diving team — by winning nine out of the fourteen events. Freshman Kait Chura led the way by claiming first in the 200-backstroke by just four-tenths of second. The Owls also grabbed victories in 400-medley relay, 1,000-freestyle and 200-freestyle to take the meet.
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