Swimcloud

North Texas Beats Houston, Falls to Rice

The North Texas swimming and diving team hit the road for the second consecutive weekend, splitting a pair of dual meets at Rice and Houston. 

Despite two individual wins and several season bests, North Texas came up short at Rice by a score of 139-67 on Friday afternoon. The Mean Green bounced back Saturday morning, winning 10 of the 16 events and defeating Houston by a score of 164.5-135.5. 

“I was really happy with how we swam against Rice,” head coach Brendon Bray said. “We had to swim in very tough conditions there. We’re not used to swimming outside, so we had to overcome some disadvantages as an indoor team. That said, we raced really well, and it will really help us going forward. 

“Houston was our best meet in my three years here. Everybody stepped up. We put some people into events that they sometimes wouldn’t do, but the kids responded and everybody stepped up. We won a lot of close races. I couldn’t be happier with our team.” 

With the weekend split, North Texas heads into the Houston Invitational and Texas Diving Invitational, both set for Nov. 19-21, with a 2-3 dual-meet record. The win over Houston was just the fifth in school history, improving to 5-16 all-time against the Cougars. 

North Texas won both relays against Houston, opening the meet with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay and closing the meet with a first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. 

Individually, freshman Natalia Kwiatkowska and senior Bianca Bocsa each won two individual events. Kwiatkowska won the the 100-yard backstroke (57.38) and 200-yard IM (2:07.87), both season-best times. Bocsa won the 50-yard freestyle (23.99) and 100-yard freestyle (51.97), also-season-best times. 

Other individual winners included sophomores Sydney Buckley (100-yard butterfly), Claudia Kitching (200-yard breaststroke), Sarah Vaisse (100-yard breaststroke), and Isabelle Morris (200-yard freestyle). Among them, Buckley posted a season-best time of 57.33, as did Vaisse with a time of 1:03.90, in their respective events. 

Led by Morris with a time of 1:52.89, North Texas swept the podium in the 200-yard freestyle, with freshman Katie Moore in second place (1:56.04) and senior Sarah Manning in third place (1:56.87) 

Against Rice, Bocsa won first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.80, while Vaisse won first place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a season-best time of 1:04.17. 

Other top finishes included a pair of second-place finishes for Morris in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.92) and 100-yard freestyle (52.32), both season bests, as well as a second-place finish for Bocsa in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.11. 

The 400-yard medley relay team of Bocsa, Kitching, freshman Kelsey Opiela, and Vaisse also picked up a second-place finish with a season-best time of 3:52.98, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Morris, senior Michelle Balcaen, freshman Brittany Thurstin and junior Courtney Connelly also placed second with a season-best time of 1:37.70. 

“The team is going to be really confident going into the Houston Invite,” Bray said. “When we come back here in three weeks, we’re going to be really confident and swim faster.” 

Looking for its second consecutive season sweep of Rice and Houston, North Texas split this season’s dual meets against the Houston-area schools.

North Texas will see both Rice and Houston at the University of Houston Invitational, which will be hosted by Houston from Nov. 19-21. 
The 200-yard medley relay team of Bocsa, Vaisse, Opiella and Morris won first place against Houston with a season-best time of 1:45.74.

Sophomore Barbara Wasilewska posted a season-best time of 10:29.16 in a third-place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle against Houston. 

Sophomore Ash Stone (2:05.16) and freshman Natalia Kwiatkowska (2:05.34) each posted season-best times in the 200-yard backstroke against Houston. 

Entering the weekend with the league’s second-fastest time in the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Claudia Kitching bested her previous season-best with a time of 1:04.93 against Houston, finishing second to sophomore Sarah Vaisse, who also recorded a season-best time in the event. 

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Vaisse, Morris, Bocsa and Connelly won first place against Houston with a season-best time of 3:30.61. 

Junior Samantha Scheck was the highest-scoring diver in both events against Houston, placing fourth in the one-meter competition (229.73) and three-meter competition (226.88). 

Sophomore Sarah Vaisse (2:06.97), freshman Natalia Kwiatkowska (2:11.45) and sophomore Claudia Kitching (2:12.87) each posted season-best times in the 200-yard individual medley against Rice. 

Sophomore Sydney Buckley (58.30), freshman Kelsey Opiela (58.40) and sophomore Caroline Culpepper (58.57) each posted season-best times in the 100-yard butterfly against Rice. 

Both the North Texas swimmers and divers will dive back into action in three weeks, with the swimmers returning to Houston to compete in the University of Houston Invitational and the divers traveling to Austin to compete in the Texas Diving Invitational. 

 

Houston

The University of Houston Swimming & Diving Team had six individual event champions Saturday afternoon, including the diving team sweeping both events against North Texas at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium. The Cougars fell to the Mean Green, 164.5-135.5.
 
“We designed this weekend to be a challenge, with a high-level meet last night and another high-level meet today,” said head coach Ryan Wochomurka. “I don’t think we were as ready to compete this morning as we were last night. I am proud of how we battled back though; we made a few adjustments in the middle of the meet and we competed better toward the end.”
 
Despite the loss, Houston produced six event victories, from Delia Weber (1,000-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle), Sharo Rodriguez (200-yard butterfly) Micaela Bouter (1-meter dive, 3-meter dive), and Eleanna Koutsouveli (200-yard backstroke).
 
“The four student-athletes who won events today continue to be leaders for us,” Wochomurka added. “We look to them for leadership, and the exciting thing is that they’re all underclassmen. They are learning what it means to be in that role, and they are leading the charge.”
 
The divers swept the meet, going 1-2-3 in both the 1-meter and 3-meter. Leading the pack was Bouter, who finished first in both the 3-meter and 1-meter, scoring 337.05 and 308.85. Senior Danielle Shedd earned second in both events with a score of 335.40 in the 3-meter and 304.13 in the 1-meter. Taylor Olanski rounded out the podium in both the 3-meter and 1-meter with her scores of 316.65 and 281.78.
 
Houston’s relay teams had four podium finishes in two events.  In the 200-yard medley relay, the Cougars finished second and third. The team of Koutsouveli, Ashley Grijalva, Rodriguez and Doroteja Bednjanec placed second with a time of 1:46.96. They were followed by the team of Jenny Penneck, Cameron Balkom, Taylor Derevyanik, and Caitlin Horner to round out the podium with a time of 1:48.40.
 
In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the team of Horner, Moore, Bednjanec and Hannah Herbst finished second with a swim of 3:31.41. In third was the team of Julie Gibson, Weber, Maya Owens and Derevyanik in a time of 3:35.11.
 
Weber won the 1,000-yard freestyle for the second day in a row with a swim of 10:13.26. Freshman Herbst placed second in a time of 10:27.88. Weber’s second win of the night came in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 5:02.24 as Herbst tied for second with a time of 5:09.48.
 
Koutsouveli finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.33. Her third individual win of the weekend came in the 200-yard backstroke with a swim of 2:03.02, a collegiate personal best.
 
In the 100-yard breaststroke, sophomore Balkom placed third, swimming it in 1:06.63. The podium finish led the Cougars in the event.
 
Rodriguez captured first place in the 200-yard butterfly, swimming a time of 2:04.72. The individual victory was Rodriguez’s second in as many days. She also placed second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.57.
 
In the 50-yard freestyle, Horner finished second with a time of 24.22 and Bednjanec placed third by swimming a time of 24.34. Horner followed that up by placing third in the 100-yard freestyle, swimming the race in 52.83.
 
In the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Grijalva placed third, leading the Cougars with a time of 2:24.55.
 
In the last individual event of the day, Koutsouveli swam a team season best and personal colligate best in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.97, good for second. Rodriguez was right behind her with a swim of 2:10.76 for third place.
 
“For us, this was another learning opportunity,” Wochomurka said. “We are a very young team, and we will get better and grow from this weekend.”

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