The No. 14 SMU women's swimming and diving team had a bit of a shaky start to the Conference USA Championship, but still managed to shatter school and conference records on the first day of competition at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston. Only two events were scheduled for the night, the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay. The Mustangs were the clear favorite heading into the meet, vying for their 12th consecutive conference title and their third straight C-USA crown. 

While the SMU men held down the lead after Day 1, a DQ left the Ponies in 6th place. Rice was out to the early lead with East Carolina, Marshall, Northern Colorado, Cal State Bakersfield following.  The host Cougars suffered a DQ of their own to sit in seventh.

The SMU men started out with a big win in the 200 medley relay. Pontus Renholm, Alex Hetland, Brett Denham and Luka Vrtovec swam a very fast 1:26.70, breaking the meet and pool record by two one-hundredths of a second. The time also bettered their season-fastest by almost a full second. The time was good for an NCAA `B' cut and missed the automatic qualifying mark by 18 one-hundredths of a second.

In the 200 medley relay, the Mustangs were poised to take a big win, and were on pace to do just that. But the Mustangs were called for a disqualification on the third leg when the swimmer left the block too early.

The DQ didn't keep the Mustangs down for long, however. In the 800 free relay, SMU absolutely smashed the Conference USA and SMU school records. Jennifer Blackman, Petra Klosova, Candace Blackman and Sascha Van den Branden teamed up to clock a blistering 7:04.87. The NCAA automatic qualifying time is 7:10.49. The Mustangs, who had already qualified for NCAAs in that event, were nearly six seconds faster than the qualifying time.

The previous C-USA meet record (and Houston pool record) in the 800 free relay was 7:10.41, set last year by SMU. The previous SMU record was 7:07.13. Tonight's performance bettered the school record by almost three seconds.

Book-ending the first night of competition was the 800 free relay. Again, the Mustangs shattered the meet and pool records. Nate Clark, Vrtovec, Thomas Fadnes and Shane Milu completed the course in 6:28.93, bettering the old meet and pool record (set last year by SMU) by over five seconds. It was also a season-best time by over five seconds and just over two seconds slower than the SMU record.
 

"We swam really well tonight," said head coach Eddie Sinnott. "We're off to a good start. We feel pretty confident that both relay times will make the NCAA cut. We're hoping to qualify all five relays, so this is a good start. Matt [Culbertson] dove very well tonight and Landon [Owen] made the top eight. The divers did their job and the swimmers did theirs. We just hope to keep it rolling. So far, the meet is going in the right direction."

"I'm very excited about what we're doing here so far," said head coach Steve Collins. "It's unfortunate that we got DQ'd in the 200 medley relay, but our time was almost two seconds faster than it was in November. We know that we can duplicate that effort at NCAAs next month. And then to break the 800 free relay record by so much is just so impressive. It's actually beyond words. It means so much. We're really just excited about the rest of the championship this week."

SMU is in first place on the men's side after the first day of competition, tallying 108 points. Hawai'i and East Carolina are tied for second with 104 and Cal State Bakersfield is last with 44.