Following an impressive first month of Sun Belt swimming competition, North Texas’ Bonnie Garcia-Meitin, Denver’s Grace Kittle, Denver’s Blake Worsley and Missouri State’s Eric Ducourneau have been honored for their performances thus far this season. Garcia-Meitin and Kittle were named the Sun Belt Conference’s Women’s Co-Swimmers of the Week while Worsley was named Sun Belt Men’s Swimmer of the Week and Ducourneau was named Sun Belt Men’s Diver of the Week.
Garcia-Meitin picked up the sole first place finish for the Mean Green in its double-dual meet against No. 6 Texas A&M and Northern Arizona. Garcia-Meitin, a senior from Angleton, Texas, took gold in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.01; the fastest time in the Sun Belt this season and the fifth-fastest in school history. She finished second in the 200 back behind the Aggies' Emily Neal, who finished third last year at the Big XII Championships in that event. Her time of 2:04.04 in the 200 is the second fastest by any Sun Belt swimmer this season.
Kittle has also been outstanding so far in her first season at DU and showed that in DU’s split with Arkansas and Utah Saturday. The freshman breaststroke specialist was the lone Pioneer to win a pair of events on Saturday, as she captured the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:05.15 and later easily captured the 200-breast with a time of 2:21.12 in just her third career meet. She also was on both meet-winning DU ‘A’ relay teams as she helped win the 400-medley relay (3:52.44) and swam third on DU’s winning 400-freestyle relay team that won with a time of 3:33.08.
Meanwhile, Worsley had an outstanding meet Saturday in DU’s win over visiting Utah, winning the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:42.19 and coming back a short time later to also capture the 500-freestyle, winning that in a time of 4:42.06. He also anchored both of DU’s meet-winning ‘A’ relay teams, helping win the 400-medley relay with a time of (3:26.34) and anchoring the 400-freestyle that finished tied with Utah’s ‘A’ team in 3:06.05.
Finally, Ducourneau swept all events he entered in the past two meets, leading the Missouri State swimming and diving team to victories over Truman State University, Delta State University, and Drury University. Ducourneau entered the 3 meter diving event in the double dual meet versus Truman State and Delta State and posted a score of 319.88. On the 1 meter he outscored all competition with a score of 289.40. In the win over Division II powerhouse, Drury University, Ducourneau tallied a score of 310.20 separating himself from the rest of the pack.
The Sun Belt swimming season will continue this week as teams will be back in action competing in a number of different dual meets and tournaments.
