Houston Invite - Day One

AIR FORCE

Competing in five events on Friday, the Air Force women’s swimming team concluded day one of action at the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational, hosted by Houston at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center (CRWC).
 
The Falcons’ top individual performer on the first day of competition was freshman Alexandra Trobe (Pittsford, N.Y.), who finished 27th overall in the 500 freestyle. After advancing to the ‘D’ finals in the event, Trobe clocked a personal-best mark of 5:27.06 to finish third in her final heat. In the 200 IM, junior Kaeli Kluesner (Denver, Colo.) also registered a career-best mark, finishing with a time of 2:10.29 in the ‘D’ finals, placing 29th overall.
 
Two Air Force swimmers competed to the ‘D’ finals of the last individual event of the day, the 50 freestyle. Sophomore Cassie Fletcher (Durham, N.C.) clocked a time of 24.36 in the final to finish fourth in her heat and 28th overall, while classmate Alison Ceranski (Marinette, Wis.), who placed 32nd overall, registered a season-best time of 24.35 in the morning preliminaries.
 
In the first relay of the day, the Falcons’ 200 freestyle relay team posted a season-best mark of 1:37.36 to finish eighth overall. Meanwhile, Air Force registered a time of 4:03.93 in the 400 medley relay, placing 15th.


KANSAS

Kansas diver Meg Proehl captured fifth place in the three-meter diving competition on the first day of the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational in Houston, Texas on Friday. Kansas finished the day in eighth place.

Proehl, a senior from San Diego, Calif., scored 269.80 points in the preliminaries and 276.50 points in the final round.

Kansas divers Allison Ho, Christy Cash and Taylor Ilten also competed in the three-meter dive. Cash placed 10th in the preliminary round, while Ho and Ilten also placed in the preliminaries at 13th and 14th, respectively.


LSU

LSU swimmer Mary Beck shattered a 14-year-old school record in the 200-yard individual medley, and Craig Hamilton and Jane Trepp each posted NCAA provisional qualifying times to spearhead the men’s and women’s teams during the first session of the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational Friday.

Beck swam to a runner-up finish in the 200 I.M. with a career best and NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 1 minute, 58.74 seconds to claim former Lady Tiger great Lucy Findlay’s program mark. Hamilton also delivered a runner-up finish with a personal best and provisional mark of 4:26.64 in the 500 free, fourth-best in school history, while Trepp recorded a provisional cut of 22.95 in the 50 free to take fourth.

Following the opening-day action, the 15th-ranked LSU men’s team jumped out to a sizable lead over UNLV, SMU and Incarnate Word, while the 21st-ranked Lady Tigers currently sit third in the women’s standings.

Juniors Clint Hallum and Hannes Heyl also enjoyed fine efforts with season bests to help the Tigers’ cause. Hallum captured second in the 200 I.M. with a 1:50.91 clocking, tied for seventh all-time at LSU, and placed sixth in the 500 free (4:35.94). Heyl registered a runner-up finish in the 50 free with a time of 20.38.

Men’s divers Brian Gemberling and Matt Vieke gave the Tigers a boost with top-three finishes in the one-meter. Gemberling tallied 304.50 points to notch second, while Vieke scored 302.55 points to post a third-place finish. Lady Tiger diver Elle Schmidt finished seventh in the women’s three-meter with a 271.10 score.

In addition, junior Luis Gonzalez, senior Sean LeNeave and freshmen Andrei Tuomola and Samantha Goates reached ‘A’ finals on Day 1. Gonzalez took fourth and sixth in the 500 free (4:33.65) and 200 I.M. (1:53.91), respectively, while LeNeave secured seventh in both the 200 I.M. and 50 free.

Tuomola touched the wall in 20.84 in the 50 free to finish sixth, and Goates placed eighth in the women’s 50 free (23.95).

In relay competition, the men’s and women’s 200 free relays came away with top-three finishes. The men’s group of Tuomola, LeNeave, Heyl and Reijo Hyvenen seized second-place with a time of 1:21.99, while the Lady Tigers’ foursome of Trepp, Goates, Beck and Amanda Kendall placed third (1:33.06).

Day 2 of the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. (CST). Live results will be available at www.LSUsports.net.

Cougar Classic Fall Invitational
Nov. 20-22 – Houston, Texas

Current Men’s Standings

1. LSU – 365
2. UNLV – 259
3. SMU – 224
4. Incarnate Word – 137

Current Women’s Standings

1. Texas A&M – 464
2. SMU – 221
3. LSU – 183
4. Houston – 144
5. Tulane – 49
6. Air Force – 38
7. Incarnate Word – 37
8. Kansas – 28
9. UNLV – 14


UNLV

The UNLV men's and women's swimming team posted several impressive performances on the first day of action at the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational in Houston. Leading the way was the No. 24 Rebel men's squad, who posted a total of five first-place finishes on the day, winning everything but the single diving event.

UNLV led off the men's first night of finals by winning the 200 yard free in a time of 1:20.30, which is a NCAA 'B' time. Making up the relay team was Steven Nelms, Charlie Tapp, Thomas Andolfsson, and Kyle Virva. That started a run of four straight wins for the Rebels, as Kier Maitland posted a 'B' time of 4:22.23 in the 500 free as the way to a first place swim, while David Seiler touched the wall in first in the 200 IM in 1:50.90 and Nelms won the 50 free in a 'B' performance of 20.26. In the night's final event, Nelms, Andrew Morrell, Cody Roberts and Nelms posted the fourth 'B' time of the night, winning in a swim of 3:17.32.

The Rebels, who brought 10 swimmers from the men's side, stands in second place in the team standings with 259 points, while LSU is first with 365.

UNLV took two swimmers from the women's squad to the event, and freshman Brittany Ozar would score in her two events, placing seventh in the 500 free (4:56.59) and 15th in the 200 IM (2:06.62).

The Rebels are also participating in the University of Arizona Diving Invite this weekend, but results from the first day of competition are not being released until Saturday.


TEXAS A&M

The No. 8 Texas A&M women;s swimming and diving team took the first day lead with a dominating performance at the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational on Friday at the University of Houston?s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium.
       
The Aggies won five of six possible events and scored an impressive 464 points as they jumped out to a commanding lead in the team standings. The closest challengers behind the Aggies were SMU (221), LSU (183) and the host Cougars (144).
       
Perhaps even more importantly was the way the Aggies raced as they piled up a whopping 17 NCAA qualifiers in the evening session alone and more in the morning prelims.
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"It was a very good day, both in the prelims and the finals," Aggie head coach Steve Bultman said. "We picked up some qualifiers today that will likely get to the NCAA meet, and quite a few other lifetime bests. They came ready to compete and took care of business."
       
Leading the way was fifth-year senior Kristen Heiss, who logged the Aggies' first NCAA automatic qualifier of the season with an impressive Big 12 and school-record effort of 4:38.24 in the 500-yard freestyle. With one of the top performances in the event in NCAA history, Heiss broke her own school record of 4:40.03, which she set at the 2008 NCAA Championships.

"That was a very good swim by Kristen, and I was really excited to see that from her,"? Bultman said. "She was strong the whole way, but she was even stronger in the second half of the race."?
       
Heiss spearheaded an amazing 1-2-3-4-5-6 finish by the Aggies in the race with four other A&M swimmers earning consideration cuts. Freshman Maureen McLaine was second with a lifetime-best of 4:43.11, freshman Liz Nelson was third in 4:50.12, sophomore Alyssa Conner was fourth in 4:50.91, freshman Kristina Kontrimas was fifth in 4:51.78 and junior Hannah Kinder was sixth in 4:53.98.
       
The Aggies also tallied five NCAA consideration cuts in the 200 IM with senior Julia Wilkinson grabbing the gold medal with a time of 1:56.69, one of the best of her collegiate career. Trailing Wilkinson on their way to NCAA 'B' cuts were senior Alia Atkinson (3rd, 1:59.75), senior Melissa Hain (4th, 4th, 2:00.45), junior Melanie Dodds (5th, 2:01.28) and senior Emily Neal (7th, 2:01.90).

A&M placed 1-2-3 in the 50-yard freestyle and piled up three more NCAA 'B' cuts. Junior Maria Sommer led the way with a time of 22.54 with Wilkinson taking second in 22.72 and senior Sarah Woods grabbing third in 22.88.

The Aggies won both relays of the day in NCAA 'B' cut fashion with the foursome of Sommer, Woods, Atkinson and Wilkinson hitting the wall with a time of 1:29.69 in the 200 freestyle relay, and the quartet of Wilkinson, Atkinson, freshman Kendra Chernoff and Woods touching in 3:36.09 in the 400 medley relay.
       
Junior Jaele Patrick took second on the three-meter springboard and improved her NCAA Zone D qualifier score with a season-best 314.30 total. Redshirt freshman Janie Potvin just missed a Zone qualifier with a season-best 275.60 score as she placed sixth.


TULANE

Giselle Calderon, Jillian Dalieden and Christine Gu all posted lifetime best times as the Tulane University women’s swimming and diving team finished day one of the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational fifth among nine teams Friday at the University of Houston Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium.
 
Calderon posted a time of 5:09.23 in the preliminaries of the 500 free in the morning and finished 16th in the finals in the afternoon after touching the wall at 5:12.21. Dalieden clocked a 2:19.56 in the preliminaries of the 200 IM, and Gu had a time of 24.91 in the prelims of the 50 free. The Green Wave had 49 points following the first day of the three-day tournament, 95 shy of fourth-placed Houston and nine more than sixth-placed Air Force.
 
“We had a great first day,” Tulane head swimming and diving coach Lena Guarriello said. “The morning swims determine who swims in the evening and we had some pretty solid swims this morning that set us up for a lot of finals swims. The good news is that we have some of our best events coming up over the next two days.
 
“We’re really looking forward to the next two days of competition. We spotted a few different things that we can work on tomorrow and Sunday. The girls are swimming really aggressively and more competitively so far this season. It’s all part of the maturing process for this very young team.”
 
The day began swimmingly for the Green Wave as Tulane’s 200 free relay team of Kylie Kastes, Gu, Kayla Alf-Huynh and Hayley Tilton finished 10th  with a time of 1:37.77 – nearly five seconds faster than the previous season-best time. Allie Evans also finished 10th in the 500 free with a season-low time of 4:58.08 after clocking a 4:59.28 in the prelims.
 
Calderon finished 16th in the 500 free with a time of 5:12.21 in the finals after posting a 5:09.23 in the preliminaries, followed by Bolton Harris at 22nd with a 5:16.68, Emily Needham at 24th with a 5:11.39 and Kristin Ates at 26th with a time of 5:22.62.
 
Erin Cunningham led the Green Wave effort in the 200 IM, finishing 28th at 2:09.31 – over a second better than her prelim time of 2:10.37 – while Elizabeth Whitaker was next at 31st after touching the wall at 2:10.72. Alf-Huynh, meanwhile, paced Tulane in the 50 free with a 24.43 to finish 29th.
 
Tulane wrapped up the opening day of the Cougar Classic Fall Invitational with the 400 free relay where the quartet of Alf-Huynh, Whitaker, Kastes and Gu finished 14th with a time of 4:03.75. The unit clocked a 3:58.49 in the event during the preliminaries.
 
The nine participating teams continue the Cougar Classic on Saturday with the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 800 free before wrapping up the meet on Sunday with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.
 
Saturday’s preliminaries and finals are slated to start at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, and at 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
 
Following the weekend in Houston, the Green Wave return to action Friday, Dec. 4, when they play a double-dual meet against the University of New Orleans and Western Kentucky. Half of the events will take place on Dec. 4 at UNO before wrapping up the double dual on Saturday at the Reily Student Recreation Center Natatorium on Dec. 5.
 
Team Scores After Day 1 Of The Cougar Classic Fall Invitational
        Team                     Points
1.     Texas A&M          464
2.     SMU                       221
3.     LSU                        183
4.     Houston                144
5.     Tulane                   49
6.     Air Force                38
7.     Incarnate Word   37
8.     Kansas                   28
9.     UNLV                    14