Missouri State Men, SMU Women Capture North Texas Relays

SMU women's swimming and diving concluded a successful Friday night at the North Texas Mean Green Relays, placing first overall with a total score of 132. TCU and Houston placed second and third, respectively with scores of 96 and 70. The Missouri State men pulled off a bit of an upset, beating out SMU and TCU by a score 132 to 106 to 82. The SMU women won with a score of 132, followed by TCU with 96 points. Houston edged out North Texas for third place by a score of 70 to 66. Missouri State followed with 56.

The Mustangs dominated several races placing first in eight of the ten relays.

In the 200 Freestyle Relay, SMU posted a top time of 1:36:54 under the strong swimming of Sophomore Sascha Van den Branden, Senior Candace Blackman, Freshman Jessica Schauwecker, and Sophomore Gabriela Soza.

The Mustangs smoked the competition in the 400 Medley Relay pulling in a time of 3:51:41 guided by Senior Petra Klosova, Junior Devon Callaghan, Freshman Denisa Smolenova, and Junior Justine Clarke.

A team of Freshman Christy-Leigh Lategan, Blackman, Sophomore Maroua Mathlouthi, and Van den Branden cruised to a first place finish in the 800 Freestyle Relay behind a time of 7:33:58.

In other results, the women placed first in the 300 Breastroke Relay, 300 Backstroke Relay, 500 Freestyle Relay, 1500 Freestyle Relay, and the 400 Medley 4X100 IM Relay. The Mustangs fell just short in the 300 Butterfly Relay and the 300 Breaststroke Relay coming second.

North Texas head coach, Joe Dykstra, shared his thoughts on his team's performance.

"It was a mixed bag tonight," said Dykstra. "We got off to a slow start and made some mistakes. But, I was encouraged with our performance towards the end of the meet, especially the last four races."