Denver
The University of Denver men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams turned in strong performances on the first day of the Sun Belt Conference Championships in the Tracy Caulkins Pool at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, Tenn. Both teams won the 800 Freestyle Relays to secure key points for the Pioneers heading into day two of competition.
Led by second place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay, 800-free relay and three-meter diving, the University of North Texas grabbed the early lead in the women’s competition on the first day of the 2010 Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championship. On the men’s side, Western Kentucky University holds a slim two-point lead over the University of Denver.
The North Texas women’s team finished the evening with 116 points while WKU and Florida Atlantic rounded out the top three with 106 and 89 points, respectively.
WKU leads a very tightly contested men’s meet with 74 points. Denver checked in with 72 points while University of New Orleans (66) and Florida Atlantic (60) round out the men’s field.
“I thought both our men’s team did a great job today, securing a win in the 800 Free Relay and then finishing third in the 200 Medley Relay, to put us in a good position heading into tomorrow’s action,” said head coach Brian Schrader. “On the women’s side, I am very excited with our win 800 Freestyle Relay, but we had a little hiccup in the 200 Medley Relay that we will need to rebound from as we head into the tomorrow’s action.”
There were several highlights on day one of competition.
WKU’s women’s 200-medley relay team set a Sun Belt Conference championship meet record with a time of 1:40.61, which is an NCAA B standard qualifying time. North Texas was second in 1:43.39.
The WKU men trailed UNO in the last leg of the men’s 200 medley relay only to come back and win the race by three-hundredths of a second (1:30.55). The Pioneer men’s relay team of Gannon Totura (Castle Rock, Colo.), Robert Barrett (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Jeff Giddens (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Jeff Cox (Alpharetta, Ga.) finished third with a time of 1:31.06 to secure 32 valuable points.
The University of Denver swept the 800 free relays with the women registering an NCAA B qualifying standard in 7:20.04 while the men’s squad turned in a winning time of 6:32.25. The Pioneer women’s relay team consisted of Melissa Greeves (Melbourne, Australia), Grace Kittle (Dallas, Texas), Michelle Needham (Portland, Ore.) and Olivia Dean (Aurora, Colo.), while the men’s relay team featured Clayton Myers (Aurora, Colo.), Cole Worsley (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), Scott Madaras (Yorktown, Va.) and Garth Summers (Portland, Ore.).
North Texas
North Texas Swimming & Diving leads the Sun Belt Championships by 10 points after day one of action over defending champions Western Kentucky.
The Mean Green racked up 116 points on day one behind second place finishes in all three events it participated in.
In the 800-meter freestyle relay, seniors Alicia Hale and Emily Floyd teamed up with juniors Angela Dworschack and Erika Roach to post an NCAA Division I B-cut time of 7:22.11, finishing just behind Denver.
The 200-yard medley relay saw another second place finish from senior Nicole Leslie, sophomores Rosa Gentile and Seabre Pope and freshman Hannele Luoma. The team barely missed the NCAA B-cut with a time of 1:43.39.
Diving saw two North Texas athletes in the top five. In the three-meter spring board final, sophomore Delia Covo finished under three-points out of first with a total of 242.95. Junior Mary Beth Geeze came in fifth with a 222.70 total.
