The Tulane University swimming and diving team opened the 2014-15 season in fine fashion with four first-place wins, two second-place showings and five third-place performances as the Green Wave finished second in the North Texas Relays on Friday evening at the Southlake-Carroll ISD Natatorium.
The Green Wave posted 400 points as a team to fall four shy of meet winner North Texas and eight more than third-placed SMU. Tulane had a chance to win the team title, but one of the 4x100 IM relay units was disqualified for an early start to account for the final outcome.
“I am so impressed with how our team started this year,” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. “After only being back in training for roughly three weeks, we really saw some great races tonight. Our backstrokers are getting stronger in their underwater kicking, our sprinters are faster than they’ve been so early in the season, our freestyle events have a lot more strength with the addition of a few of our freshmen and our medley relay is looking very competitive yet again this year.
“Our second-to-last relay was disqualified for an early take-off that cost us 18 points. Our team reacted in a way that made me a very proud coach as they went on to win the next and final relay from behind. With those 18 points, would we have won the meet? Yes. But I’ll leave the woulda-coulda-shoulda’s to others and keep our team hungry and humble for more.”
The trio of junior Elizabeth Cook, senior Vanessa Loewen and freshman Tirol Palmer posted Tulane’s first win of the day with a 2:52.79 in the 300 back relay and Palmer joined forces with sophomore Joy Jason, Loewen and junior Mia Schacter to do the same in the 400 medley with a mark of 3:54.64. Sophomore Jonna Frantz, freshmen Kaitlin Simpson and Emma Lincoln, along with Schachter, won the 400 free relay at 3:32.36 and the junior tandem of Lauren Arnold and Maren Kjell joined forces to win the one-meter springboard with a combined score of 478.20.
The tandem of freshman Alex Lakota, sophomore Ellie Sills and senior Amy Needham led the Green Wave in the 300 fly relay with a 2:53.52 to finish second in the event, as did Schachter, senior Claire Schelske and Jason in the 300 breast relay at 3:20.35.
Tulane’s top performances in the 800 free came from Lincoln, junior Holly Grender, Simpson and Lakota at 7:43.26 to finish third. Needham, Sills, Simpson and Lakota followed suit in the 500 free at 4:42.37 along with Simpson, Needham, Frantz and Schacter in the 200 free at 1:38.94, junior Rachel Schnieder, junior Roni Meyer and Grender in the 1500 free at 15:46.49 and Sills, freshman Alex Brindisi, Jason and Lakota in the 400 medley 4x100 IM at 4:08.21
“I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with this meet regarding points,” Robinson added. “On paper, we could have easily been written off as third. SMU just came off a year of sending multiple swimmers to the NCAA meet, and this year will likely be no different. North Texas had outscored us last year in our dual meet as well as at the C-USA Championships. To have it all come down to four points – well let’s just say it was the most thrilling meet to start the season I’ve ever had.”
The Green Wave return to action on Saturday, Sept. 27, when they travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to square off against TCU in a standard-format dual meet beginning at 10 a.m. (CDT). From there, Tulane will play host to in-state rival LSU at 5 p.m. in the Reily Student Recreation Center. Tulane’s dual-meet against the Lady Tigers is the first of three home meets during the 2014-15 season, and admission to each of those contests is free.
COACH ROBINSON’S QUOTES FOLLOWING THE NORTH TEXAS RELAYS
Overall thoughts on the meet
“I am so impressed with how our team started this year. After only being back in training for roughly three weeks, we really saw some great races tonight. Our backstrokers are getting stronger in their underwater kicking, our sprinters are faster than they’ve been so early in the season, our freestyle events have a lot more strength with the addition of a few of our freshmen and our medley relay is looking very competitive yet again this year.”
On the performance of the Tulane divers
“Our divers came through for us big today. We couldn’t have done nearly as well without them. As a diving team, they are developing and showing improvements. It was great to see their competitive side come out to claim the victory on the boards.”
On the overall level of excitement during the meet
“I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with this meet regarding points. On paper, we could have easily been written off as third. SMU just came off a year of sending multiple swimmers to the NCAA meet and this year will likely be no different. North Texas had outscored us last year in our dual meet as well as at the C-USA Championships. To have it all come down to four points – well let’s just say it was the most thrilling meet to start the season I’ve ever had.”
On the DQ in the 4x100 IM relay
“Our second-to-last relay was disqualified for an early take off that cost us 18 points. Our team reacted in a way that made me a very proud coach as they went on to win the next and final relay from behind. With those 18 points, would we have won the meet? Yes. But I’ll leave the woulda-coulda-shoulda’s to others and keep our team hungry and humble for more.”
