Divers Lauren Lamb and Madeline Wainman teamed up with the Mustang relays for event sweeps to lead the No. 21 SMU women’s swimming and diving team over Rice, 152-136, on Saturday afternoon. Juniors Tara-Lynn Nicholas and Marne Erasmus also picked up a pair of wins each to lead the individual effort.
“It was a great meet against great competition today,” head coach Steve Collins said. “We really relied on the strength of our relays and diving, and our team had great team spirit. We’re looking forward to using these wins from this weekend to build confidence for this season.”
Lamb and Wainman split the diving events, with Lamb winning 1-meter and Wainman taking 3-meter.
For the second-straight event, the Ponies swept the relays with Tiffany Sudarma, Nicholas, Erasmus and Hannah Rogers starting the day with a 1:44.07 in the 200-yard medley relay. The event concluded with Erasmus and Rogers teaming up with Vicky Cunningham and Maddie Hoch for the win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The group out-touched Rice’s A squad by over two seconds finishing at 3:27.06.
Individually, Nicholas picked up her wins by sweeping the breaststroke distances, while Erasmus was the top point scorer in butterfly action. Kirsty McLauchlan posted third-place points in the 200 breast, while Sudarma earned the same spot in the 100 fly.
SMU duplicated its one-two performance from last night in the 50-yard freestyle, as Rogers took the top spot for the second time this weekend, touching the wall in 23.67, and was it Cunningham who earned runner-up status today.
The final win came from Hoch, who outpaced the competition in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:00.76. In the 200 distance, the Mustangs earned crucial team points with Hoch, Cunningham and Ursa Bezan going two-three-four.
SMU travels to Louisiana for a pair of dual meets next weekend. The Ponies will face LSU on Saturday at 12 p.m. CT, and American Athletic Conference foe Tulane on Sunday at 10 a.m.
