Swimcloud

Pearland Classic Recaps - Day 1

Tulane

Junior Holly Grender set school record in the 200 IM and fellow junior Mia Schachter posted a NCAA B-Cut  while tying her own school mark in the 50 free as the Tulane University swim team opened the Pearland Invitational with a stellar overall performance on Friday at the Pearland Natatorium.

Schachter won her event and tied her 50 freestyle mark with a 22.90 – originally set last Feb. 27 at the Conference Championship. Grender, meanwhile, finished third in the 200 IM with a 2:05.09, breaking the former school record of 2:05.09 by Victoria Givens on Feb. 23, 2006 at the C-USA meet. All 22 individual performances were season-best showings and the Green Wave added season-best marks in both the 200 free and 400 medley relays as well.

“This team is on fire!” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. “We are coming away from the first day with so many outstanding swims to be excited about. Holly Grender was our surprise of the morning with her school record in the 200 IM, which she lowered again in finals. She dropped almost six seconds off her personal record. If you don’t know swimming, you may not understand how incredible that is.

“Mia Schachter winning the 50 was a proud moment for us as a team. She exactly tied our school record and her own PR in that event. She came up to us afterwards smiling and said, ‘I’m so mad.’ She is hungry for more, which is exactly what we need at this point in the middle of our season. The stage has been set for this meet and the future looks very bright indeed. As a team, we need to stay focused and determined to conquer the next two days.”

After six events, the Green Wave sit second among the four participating teams with 300 points. Rice leads the overall race with 431 points while North Texas is third with 208 and host Houston sits fourth with 153.

Grender was one of three swimmers to crack the Tulane record book in the 200 IM on Friday as freshman Alex Lakota finished with seventh with a 2:06.98 while sophomore Ellie Sills won the B final with a mark of 2:06.98. Sills’ mark sits as the No. 5 individual mark and the No. 7 overall time in Green Wave history while Lakota’s time ranks fifth in the individual listing and eighth overall. In addition, senior Amy Needham clocked the No. 11 overall time in Tulane history in the 100 fly with a 44.78 to finish fourth in the event.

In relay action, the quartet of junior Elizabeth Cook, Schachter, Needham and freshman Emma Lincoln finished second in the 400 medley with a 3:43 while freshman Tirol Palmer, sophomore Joy Jason, Sills and freshman Kaitlin Simpson was third at 3:47.90. Those two times rank second and third in Tulane history, respectively, with the second-place-finishing falling just 14-100ths of a second off the school mark of 3:42.93 set at last year’s conference meet. The 200 free relay unit of Simpson, Lincoln, Palmer and Schacter finished second with a 1:34.06 – the sixth-fastest time in Green Wave annals – while the foursome of freshman Alex Brindisi, Cook, Lakota and Needhman came in sixth at 1:36.30 – the NO. 14 time in program history.

Needham was one of four Green Wave swimmers to qualify for the 100 fly A finals as Lincoln finished fifth with a 56.13 and both Sills and Lakota tied for sixth with identical times of 56.23. Junior Roni Meyers led Tulane in the 500 free with a 5:00.13 to finish fifth, and Simpson joined Schachter in the 50 free A final with an eighth-place finish of 24.35 after swimming a 24.06 in the preliminaries.

“Our 500 free group swam well and better than they have all season long,” Robinson added. “Our team is so tight-knit that we build off each other’s swims throughout the meet. Watching the 500 and how each of those women fought to get their hand on the wall quickly inspired our team.”

The three-day Pearland Invitational continues on Saturday with the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 800 free relay before closing out the meet on Sunday with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.

Following this weekend’s meet, the Green Wave will enjoy a break before opening the spring slate on Saturday, Jan. 10, when they travel to Coral Gables, Fla., to take on Rutgers and host Miami. Tulane’s next home meet is slated for Jan. 24 when the Wave play host to North Texas in the Reily Center. Prior to the start of that contest, Tulane will honor the senior class of Morgan Evans, Molly Jubas, Vanessa Loewen, Amy Needham, Claire Schelske, and Laura Turpen with a special ceremony and admission is free.

COACH ROBINSON’S QUOTES FOLLOWING DAY 1 OF THE PEARLAND CLASSIC

Overall thoughts on the meet’s opening day

“This team is on fire! We are coming away from the first day with so many outstanding swims to be excited about. Our 200 free relay was very good and just a tenth of a second off of what we went as a team last year at last year’s C-USA Championship. With three freshmen and one junior, that relay has so much room for potential. Our 100 butterfly was very strong to put four swimmers in the Top A final.  It was very good to see Amy Needham break into the 55s again. She has come so far in that event and may be knocking on the door of the school record later this season. We had two freshmen swimmers set their own PR’s in this event as well – [Kaitlin] Simpson and [Emma] Lincoln. It was very good to see our freshmen improving, dropping time and adapting to our training regimen so quickly.”

On the 500 freestylers

“Our 500 free group swam well and better than they have all season long. Our team is so tight-knit that we built off each other’s swims throughout the meet. Watching the 500 and how each of those women fought to get their hand on the wall quickly inspired our team. Thanks to those first two great events, the momentum was on our side.”

On Holly Grender setting a school record in the 200 IM

“Holly Grender was our surprise of the morning with her school record in the 200 IM, which she lowered again in finals. She dropped almost six seconds off her PR. If you don’t know swimming, you may not understand how incredible that is. Freshmen [Alex] Lakota was in the A final of that race, too, and just a bit off her PR. Ellie [Sills] came hungry for the win in the B final and succeeded with a time that was faster than her C-USA Championship time from last year. Our lone senior in the event, [Laura]Turpen, went a PR which was a time she had set for herself when she was a sophomore in high school. After such a plateau in an event, it really was amazing to see her reaction to her time on the scoreboard when she won the C final.”

On Mia Schachter winning the 50 free in Tulane record-tying fashion

“Mia Schachter winning the 50 was a proud moment for us as a team. She exactly tied our school record and her own PR in that event. She came up to us afterwards smiling and said, ‘I’m so mad!’ She is hungry for more, which is exactly what we need at this point in the middle of our season. Coach [Sarah] Woodbury does an amazing job with our sprinters and has coached them so well in the 50 Free. She is a mad scientist when creating workouts and it has produced results as seen from this meet. We are very lucky to have her on staff and I couldn’t imagine coaching alongside anyone else.”

On the 400 medley relay

“Our 400 medley relays went so well tonight. For our B relay to get third overall is exceptional, not to mention our A team getting within a tenth of a second off our school record that was set last year. The stage has been set for this meet and the future looks very bright indeed. As a team we need to stay focused and determined to conquer the next two days.”

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