Houston
Houston’s Delia Weber, Eleanna Koutsouveli and Ashley Grijalva combined to break four program records Saturday night on the final day of the 2015 Phill Hansel Invitational. Houston finished the final session with six top-ten finishes as the Cougars continued to record program bests at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.
Overall, Houston broke five individual program records at the Phill Hansel Invitational, including Grijalva’s program best Friday night in the 100-yard breaststroke.
“We swam really well top-to-bottom this week, and I am especially proud of breaking five school records in the span of a three-day event,” Houston head coach Ryan Wochomurka said. “Across the board, every member of our team walked away with at least one race that they can feel good about because of the progress they made.”
The Cougars finished the invitational in fourth place, with a score of 778. Rice took first with 1121.5. Tulane followed in second with 879, and UC Davis rounded out the podium with 861 points.
In the first event of Saturday night’s finals, the freshmen stole the show as they got the Cougars going early with two top-five finishes in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Weber broke two program records with her performance. She first broke former National Champion Diane Johannigman’s record from March 17, 1978 in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a split of 9:59.42. She also broke the 1,650-yard freestyle program record with her time of 16:32.75.
Fellow freshman Hannah Herbst nabbed a fifth place finish in 1,650-yard freestyle by swimming 16:53.19, a personal best and the sixth-best time in program history.
Freshman Koutsouveli had an impressive performance, as she finished third overall in the 200-yard backstroke and set another program record. The Athens, Greece, native’s time of 1:58.52 beat Kimmy Ballo’s record from Feb. 23, 2013. Her performance is also an NCAA B standard time.
Grijalva continued her dominating performance in the breaststroke as she broke another school record Saturday night. In the 200-yard backstroke, the sophomore nabbed a second place finish with a time of 2:13.68. Grijalva’s time is new school record and also currently the best mark this season in the American Athletic Conference. The sophomore’s time is also NCAA B standard time.
“For our team to swim some of the fastest times this this program has ever achieved is exciting,” Wochomurka said. “It’s especially encouraging, because all five of those records were broken by freshmen and sophomores. Those student-athletes are only going to improve, and with our young core, the future of this program is very bright. They’re going to leave a long legacy at Houston.”
In the 100-yard freestyle, sophomore Caitlin Horner led the Cougars and placed 12th overall with a time of 51.74.
Sharo Rodriguez captured a second place finish in the 200-yard butterfly. The sophomore’s swim of 2:00.91 is a team season best.
“I am extremely proud of our captains and seniors,” Wochomurka said. “A team is only as strong as its leadership, and for our program to have the kind of weekend we just experienced speaks volumes about the tone that our captains and seniors set every day. I am grateful for that; they’re a huge reason we were able to put together a performance like this.”
In the final event of the invitational, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the team of Horner, Julie Gibson, Doroteja Bednjanec and Emma Moore placed overall fourth overall with a time of 3:25.92, a team season best and the fourth-best time in program history.
“We’re 11 weeks into a 22-week season, so this is just the halfway point,” Wochomurka said with an eye toward the spring. “We circled this meet on the calendar as a weekend that would provide a great assessment of our team. This was a great learning opportunity as we transition into the championship season, and it sets us up really well for the American Athletic Conference Championships in February.”
RESULTS
OVERALL
1. Rice – 1121.5
2. Tulane – 879
3. UC Davis – 861
4. Houston – 778
5. Oregon State – 707.5
6. Colorado State – 703
7. North Texas – 562.5
8. New Mexico State – 556.5
9. Idaho – 544
10. Northern Colorado – 238
North Texas
The North Texas swimmers and divers wrapped up their respective weekends on Saturday with the final day of competition at the Phill Hansel Invitational in Houston and the Texas Diving Invitational in Austin.
Sophomore Claudia Kitching picked up the first and only win of the weekend for North Texas, taking first place in the finals of the 200-yard breaststroke. She posted times in both the preliminary and finals that are NCAA B time standards, and her time of 2:13.51 in the finals was the second-fastest in program history.
"We really gained momentum each session," head coach Brendon Bray said. "The first day, we started out the gates with some events that weren't our top events, but we got better each session. We ended the weekend with a fantastic night session on Saturday. Claudia Kitching was unbelievable. She posted an NCAA B cut, which was our first of the season."
Sophomore Caroline Culpepper also advanced to an A final, in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing third place overall with a North Texas season-best time of 2:01.37, becoming the second-fastest swimmer in program history in the event. Senior Bianca Bocsa just missed qualifying for the A final in the 100-yard freestyle but came back and won the B final, finishing 10th place overall, with a North Texas season-best time of 50.94.
Other top finishers included sophomore Barbara Wasilewska (18th place, 17:23.29) in the 1650-yard freestyle, as well as junior Ashley Stone (13th, 2:02.52) and freshman Natalia Kwiatkowska (15th, 2:04.44) in the 200-yard backstroke, with Wasilewska and Stone both setting North Texas season-best times.
In the final event of the three-day competition, North Texas took sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a season-best time of 3:26.24. And after 18 events, which included 13 individual events and five relays, North Texas finished in seventh place of 10 teams with a score of 562.50.
"Caroline Culpepper had the biggest time drops of anyone at the meet and was on fire in every event she swam," Bray said. "Bianca (Bocsa) is very close to breaking the school record (50.83), and she had an outstanding 100 freestyle. Isabelle Morris had outstanding events. She continues to improve and had a lifetime best in the 200 freestyle. Sarah Vaisse continues to impress. She had a great 200 IM and 100 breaststroke and really helped our relay teams. Our relays as a whole improved.
"This weekend is going to give us a lot of confidence going into the conference meet. We had some really good races, which will help our team's confidence once they get to end of the year, so they can perform at their best. I'm very impressed and I'm happy with how the girls competed."
On the boards in Austin, competing on the platform boards for the first time this season, senior Jasmine Abercrombie finished in 17th place with a score of 166.75, followed by junior Samantha Scheck in 18th place with a score of 158.30.
"Over the past three days of competition, the divers have done well, fought through doubt, and recovered to finish strong," diving coach Mark Murdock said. "My goal when bringing our divers here was to show them a next level competition, to bring them somewhere with top caliber athletes who have the determination and focus to reach their personal goals of becoming great divers.
"I believe that by bringing them to this invite it will help them understand what my ultimate goal for the team is and each of them individually."
Northern Colorado
UNC Swimming & Diving continued their outings at their respective Invites on Saturday, with the swimmers closing out their run at the Phill Hansel Invite, and the divers continuing their slate at the Wildcat Open.
The swimmers finished 10th overall at the Houston-hosted Phill Hansel Invite, earning 238 team points.
In the final day of competition, the UNC swimmers made waves, setting season records left and right. All of the individual swimmers set season-best times in the preliminary round of their events, with four girls cutting their time even further in the finals round.
The first event of the day was the 1650 yard freestyle, in which Carleigh Barrett competed for the first time this season. Her time of 17:09.54 putting her in the top-13 of all of the race participants.
Sydney Kovar moved into the eighth-place spot in the UNC All-Time records for the 1650 free, posting a season best time of 17:23.93. Kovar also picked up a season best in the 100 yard freestyle, touching the wall at 53.04 in the prelims run.
Jenny Brown also slid into the top-10 All-Time records with her 17:28.56 run in the race. This was also her best time this season.
The fourth UNC swimmer in the 1650 free was Lexi Peterson, who recorded a season best time of 18:07.83. ?In the 200 fly, Peterson picked up a preliminary time that will replace her season best, notching 2:10.99 in the race.
In the 200 yard backstroke, Elle Gawronska picked up a preliminary time (and season best) of 2:04.55 to place her in the third heat of the finals round. Her finals time of 2:05.06 landed her 21st place overall in the event, and fifth in her heat. Her prelims time earns her a sixth place spot in the All-Time Top 10 Athletes of the event.
Valeria Mihhailova earned a season best time of 52.26 in the prelims of the 100 yard freestyle, placing her in the third heat of finals as well. Her finals time was even faster than prelims, making her season best a 52.12 in the event. Her time moved her into seventh place in the program of All-Time, times in the 100 free.
In the 200 yard breaststroke, Courtney Chrzas scored points for the Bears, picking up her season best time of 2:23.16, advancing her to the finals in the third heat. Her finals time puts her at the ninth All-Time time in the event.
Laura Ramirez had a standout day in the 200 yard butterfly, touching the wall at 2:05.48 in prelims for a spot in heat numer two of finals. In the finals round, however, she set an even faster season best by nearly two seconds, stopping the clock at 2:03.85. While she already sits in third place All-Time in the program, her finals time will replace a 2014 best that landed her the third place ranking, besting it by nearly half a second.
Sydney Kimura also set a season best in the 200 yard backstroke with a 2:08.68 time in the finals. Tara Olson put up a time of 2:27.13 in the finals of 200 yard breaststroke - her best so far of the season as well.
Three of the UNC divers continued their competition at the Wildcat Invite, taking on their 1M dive lists. Savanna Meadows finished sixth overall for the Bears, scoring 263.50 in the finals. Meadows advanced to the finals after earning a season-high score of 282.30 in the preliminary round.
"Day two is always the hardest at these big invitationals and I think the girls felt that a little bit," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. "Savanna had a much better performance today finishing third in the preliminaries [to advance to the finals] after setting a season best score by 12 points. In finals, she fixed what she messed up on in prelims but missed the things she hit in prelims. That's definitely something that we noticed and need to work on with all of the girls."
Haley Schneider and Taylor Walsh also competed on the 1M, earning scores of 205.55 and 216.40 in the prelims, respectively.
"Tomorrow will be a fun day. It will be the first time this season that they are able to compete tower so it's going to be a good test of where they are with that event. It's a lot of fun and a very different event so I'm excited to see what they can do."
The swimmers will take a two week break before returning to the pool on Dec. 4-5 for the Omaha Invite in Omaha, Nebraska. The divers will close out their competition at the Wildcat Invite on Sunday before their break prior to the Omaha Invite. The Omaha Invite will close out the 2015 schedule for the UNC Swimming & Diving team, giving them almost a month off before returning to meet competition on January 15th.
