SMU's women scored two individual event wins while the Mustang men's team maintained a slight lead against East Carolina through two days of competition at the American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
SMU senior Rachel Nicol and sophomore Kirsty McLauchlan took the top two places in the 200-yard individual medley, while Mustangs seniors Isabella Arcila and Nathalie Lindborg turned in a 1-2 finish in the 50 freestyle to highlight the women's competition. The men's meet was highlighted by the second straight diving win for SMU senior Devin Burnett.
SMU leads the women's meet with 270 points, while UConn is second with 221. East Carolina is third with 219.5 points, followed by Tulane (166.5), Houston (163) and Cincinnati (150).
The four-team men’s competition has SMU in first place with 347 points, followed by East Carolina (340), UConn (286) and Cincinnati (210).
Nicol turned in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:59.49 in the 200 IM to edge McLauchlan, who touched the wall in 2:01.57. The Mustangs were able to produce big points in the 50 freestyle, meanwhile, as SMU stacked the champioship final with five swimmers after the morning preliminaries. Arcila turned out to be the best of the bunch as she hit a provisional NCAA time of 22.25 seconds to tie her own meet record set earlier in the day. Lindborg was second in 22.39, while UConn's Chinyere Pigot - the 2014 American champion - was third in 22.89.
SMU closed the women's portion of Thursday's action with a win in the 200 freestyle relay as the Mustangs touched in 1:30.71 to edge Cincinnati, which finished in 1:32.66.
Cincinnati picked up an individual event win as sophomore Jackie Keire defended her conference title in the 500 freestyle. Keire earned her third career American Athletic Conference individual title with a meet record time of 4:42.68 to win the 500 by nearly five seconds.
The men's competition saw Burnett remain unbeaten in American Athletic Conference diving events for his career as the Mustang senior took first on the three-meter springboard. Burnett, who won all three diving events at last year's championship and won the one-meter diving event Wednesday, scored 341.40 points on the three-meter board to hold of UConn's John Brice, who scored 310.45 to turn in his second runner-up finish of the 2015 championship.
SMU freshman Christian Scherubl, a 2012 Olympian from Austria won the men's 500 freestyle for SMU as he clocked 4:18.23 to beat defending champion Christopher Girg from UConn (4:24.56).
East Carolina’s men closed the gap on the Mustangs in the team standings, however, as the Pirates took three event wins Thursday. Senior Rokas Cepulis led the way in the 200 individual medley as he and Fran Krznaric went 1-2. Cepulis won in 1:45.61 to edge his teammate, who touched in 1:45.73.
East Carolina's Nikola Simic was the only swimmer to break 20 seconds in the 50 freestyle as the Pirate senior finished in 19.87 seconds. The Pirates capped the night with a 1:19.77 finish in the 200 freestyle relay to defeat second-place SMU by nearly a second.
Competition continues Friday, with preliminaries at noon ET and finals at 6 p.m. ET as the individual swimming events get underway.
UConn Men
The University of Connecticut men’s swimming and diving team saw two second-place finishes during the finals of the second day of the American Athletic Championships on Thursday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. The Huskies stand in third place halfway through the conference meet with 286 total points. SMU leads all schools with a score of 347, and East Carolina is in second place with 340 points through two days.
Connecticut had a great showing in the 500-yard freestyle final, tallying two of the top four spots. Sophomore Chris Girg (Burbach, Germany) placed second (4:24.56), as he finished behind SMU’s Christian Scherubl, who won with a time of 4:18.23. UConn junior swimmer Mike Lennon (Williston Park, N.Y.) was fourth (4:27.00), while senior Sawyer Franz (Pine, Colo.) recorded the top time in the B-Final after swimming it in 4:28.94.
Senior Felix Samuels (London, England) became the second Husky to earn a top-two finish on Wednesday following his performance in the 50-yard freestyle. He swam the race in 20.32 seconds, as he finished just behind East Carolina’s Nikola Simic (19.87).
Two other UConn swimmers placed in the top-eight in the 50-yard freestyle, starting with sophomore James Donlevy (Lake Grove, N.Y.), who was seventh with a time of 20.70. Junior Jeff Magin (Brookfield, Conn.) rounded out the top eight after swimming the race in 20.83.
Donlevy, Magin, Samuels and teamed up with sophomore Kevin Konarski (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) in the final event of the night, the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Huskies finished fourth with a time of 1:23.30, while ECU captured first place, swimming it in 1:19.77.
Freshman Daniel Kinney (Middletown, Conn.) led the charge on the diving side, finishing fourth in the 1-meter final after totaling 275.40 points. Junior standout John Brice (Bala Cynwood, Pa.), who was second in Wednesday’s 3-meter final, placed fifth just behind Kinney on Thursday with a score of 273.75. Sophomore Spencer Beaulieu (Portland, Conn.) recorded the top score (260.75) in the B-Final of the event.
In the 200-yard IM, junior Greg Baliko (Fanwood, N.J.) grabbed fourth-place honors with a completed time of 1:48.14. Freshman Brandon Cole would finish 14th overall after completing the event in 1:52.82.
Day three of the American Athletic Championships resumes Friday morning at 10 a.m. with another round of swimming preliminaries. The diving preliminaries are at 12:30 p.m., and the finals will once again take place at 6 p.m.
UConn Women
University of Connecticut senior swimmer Katy Munzenmaier (Lake George, N.Y.) led the charge once again for UConn on day two of the American Athletic Championships, placing second in the 500-yard freestyle final Thursday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. The Huskies currently sit in second place with 108 points, as they trail Houston (120 points) and lead East Carolina (96), SMU (82), Tulane (72) and Cincinnati (57).
Munzenmaier was one of two Connecticut swimmers to earn top-four spots in the 500-yard freestyle, as she posted a time of 4:47.57 to finish behind Cincinnati’s Jacqueline Keire (4:42.68.) Sophomore Sophie Nothnagle (Victor, N.Y.) was fourth with a time of 4:50.58, and Michelle Faykes (Cherry Hill, N.J.) grabbed eighth place after swimming the race in 5:00.73. Junior Laura Hyland (Southport, England) and senior Holly Gallagher (Haddon Township, N.J.) both placed in the B-Final on Thursday as well.
UConn standout Chinyere Pigot (Miami, Fla.) had another solid showing in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing third with a time of 22.89. The Connecticut senior, who won the race with a school record time of 22.81 in last year’s conference meet, trailed SMU’s Isabella Arcila (22.25) and Nathalie Lindborg (22.39) on Thursday. Sophomore Tara O’Prey (Ridley Park, Pa.) was 12th in the race after swimming it in 23.71.
O’Prey and Pigot teamed up with sophomore Christine Pedersen (Vinterbro, Norway) and junior Laura Ruttan (Stittsville, Ontario) to finish fourth (1:41.89) in the final event of the night, the 200-yard medley relay. SMU won the race (1:37.32), while East Carolina (1:41.13) and Tulane (1:41.30 rounded out the top three.
Two Huskies placed in the B-Final of the 200-yard IM, starting with sophomore Margot Manning (Frederick, Md.). She finished 11th overall with a time of 2:05.47, and fellow sophomore Caroline Finkle (Johns Creek, Ga.) was 13th in the event after finishing it in 2:06.28.
Tulane
To say junior Holly Grender broke a school record is beginning to sound like a broken record, but the native of Cincinnati, Ohio, did exactly that to help spearhead another solid performance by the Tulane University swimming and diving team during day two of the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
One day after helping the 800 free relay team set a program record and adding an individual mark with her leadoff 200 free split, Grender broke her own school record in the 200 IM during the morning preliminaries with a time of 2:03.67. It was the third time during the 2014-15 season she set the Tulane standard in the event, after doing so in preliminaries of the Pearland Invitational and following that up with a 2:03.99 in the finals back on Nov. 21.
Grender was one of five Tulane swimmers to score in the 200 IM and the Green Wave wrapped up the day with a season-best 1:33.49 in the 200 freestyle to jump from fifth to fourth place at the conclusion of the day’s contests. With 166.5 points through seven events, Tulane holds a 3.5-point lead over fifth-placed Houston (163) and trails fourth-placed East Carolina (219.5) by 53 points. SMU leads the overall race with 270 points, followed by UConn at 221. Cincinnati rounds out the field with a 150-point effort to date.
“Tonight was a very good night for the Green Wave,” Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. “After only being able to place two individual swimmers in the finals [on day two] last year, we were able to place four people in the A final and four people in the B final before the relay went off tonight. In the 200 IM, we had a total of five people score in among the top 16 in the conference which is really phenomenal. Holly Grender broke her school record in the morning, which was great to see once again.
“We finished off the night with a great, great 200 free relay. We were much stronger than we were last year and it was a very strong finish to a great day. We look forward to keeping this ball rolling, using and having faith in all of the training that has taken place to get us to where we are today, remembering all the hard work and realizing how it can pay off.”
Junior Roni Meyer got things going early for the Green Wave, finishing sixth in the 500 free with a career-best 4:58.40. Her time is the No. 5 individual mark and No. 10 overall standard in Tulane history. From there, Grender and her fellow 200 IMers put together the best performance in the event during the 2014-15 season.
While she was slightly off her pace from the preliminaries, Grender finished fifth with a 2:03.79 – the No. 2 overall time in Tulane history – while freshman Alex Lakota (2:07.34), sophomore Ellie Sills (2:04.29), senior Laura Turpen (2:07.82) and sophomore Joy Jason (2:08.68) came in eighth, 10th, 15th and 16th, respectively. All told, Tulane’s 200 IMers clocked five of the 10 fastest times in school history on the day as Lakota’s 200 IM preliminary of 2:04.98 stands as the No. 3 individual and No. 6 overall time in Tulane history, Sills’ added the No. 2 individual and No. 5 overall times with her finals performance as well as the No. 10 overall mark with a 2:05.89 in the preliminaries, Turpen put up the No. 7 overall time with a 2:07.06 in the preliminaries and Jason posted the No. 5 individual and No. 8 overall effort during the prelims with a 2:05.71.
“[Grender] still got so much more growth to do in that event and I believe she’ll see even more drops in the years to come,” Robinson said. “It was also great to see Laura Turpen swim her last 200 IM and make a scoring spot. It was also very good to have Alex Lakota make the A final in that event and score some major points as a freshman and keep her composure through that.”
Junior Mia Schachter paced the Tulane effort in the 50 free with a 23.03 to finish fourth overall and freshman Tirol Palmer was 15th with a 23.97. The Green Wave wrapped up the day with a fourth-place finish in the 200 free relay as the freshman trio of Kaitlin Simpson, Emma Lincoln and Palmer joined forces with Schachter to clock a 1:33.49. The time was the fourth-fastest in school history and the best effort of the year by a Tulane 200 free relay team.
The American Championship continues on Friday when the six competing teams square off in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 400 free relay and three-meter springboard before closing out the meet with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 400 free relay and platform diving. Preliminaries for each day will begin at 9 a.m. (CST) with finals slated to start at 5 p.m..
QUOTES FOLLOWING DAY 2 OF THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Tulane Head Coach Katie Robinson
Overall thoughts on the day
“Tonight was a very good night for the Green Wave. After only being able to place two individual swimmers in the finals last year, we were able to place four people in the A final and four people in the B final before the relay went off tonight. It was another good day.
On the 500 free
“Roni started us off in the 500 free and went a lifetime-best time. She was so strong the whole way and she really caught some people at the end, which was really great to see. It also just goes to show that the conditioning and the training we do was paying off.”
On the 200 IM
“In the 200 IM, we had a total of five people score in among the top 16 in the conference which is really phenomenal. Holly Grender broke her school record in the morning, which was great to see once again. She’s still got so much more growth to do in that event and I believe she’ll see even more drops in the years to come. It was also great to see Laura Turpen swim her last 200 IM and make a scoring spot. It was also very good to have Alex Lakota make the A final in that event and score some major points as a freshman and keep her composure through that.”
On the 50 free
“We had a great swim from Mia. She was a little bit off of what she’s been so far this season. We know what the problems are and she is fully ready to make those corrections for the rest of the races this week.”
On the 200 free relay
“We finished off the night with a great, great 200 free relay. We were much stronger than we were last year. We went into the meet seeded fifth in the event and moved up a spot to fourth place. We beat East Carolina, which is a very strong team – especially in the freestyle events – and we were just shy of beating Connecticut. It was a very strong finish to a great day. We look forward to keeping this ball rolling, using and having faith in all of the training that has taken place to get us to where we are today, remembering all the hard work and realizing how it can pay off.”
