Feb. 13, 2007

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IRVING, Texas - The 2007 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championship begins today at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston.

The meet opens at 3 p.m., Wednesday with the preliminaries of the men's 1-meter diving. Finals of the 200-yard medley relay, men's 1-meter diving and 800-yard freestyle relay are slated to start at 6 p.m.

The meet kicks into high gear with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m., Thursday. Thursday's schedule includes the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley and 50-yard freestyle. The preliminaries for the women's 3-meter diving are slated to begin around 1 p.m.

Finals for those events plus the 400-yard medley relay will begin at 6 p.m., Thursday.

In addition to the host Cougars, the meet features both the men's and women's teams from SMU and East Carolina and the women's teams from Rice, East Carolina and Marshall. Hawai'i also will be competing on the men's side.

Tickets will be available for purchase near the front of the CRWC Natatorium beginning one hour prior to the meet Thursday morning. All-session passes are available for $25 for adults or $10 for students with valid ID. Day tickets can be purchased for $10 for adults and $5 for students with ID. Students from any C-USA school with a valid free will be admitted free to the meet.

There will be no admission price for fans wishing to attend Wednesday's sessions. Fans attending any session beginning Thursday morning will be charged accordingly.

Fans can buy an official C-USA meet program and that session's heat sheet for only $5 beginning Thursday morning. Fans who buy a program and present it to sellers prior to each session can purchase additional heat sheets for future sessions for only $3 each.

This marks the fourth straight season that the Cougars have played host to the C-USA Women's Championship and Men's Invitational. UH is the only C-USA school to host the annual event at an on-campus site.

In 2006, SMU earned the women's championship during its first year in the league. The Mustangs, who are ranked No. 12 in the latest CollegeSwimming.com poll, set nine meet records to earn the convincing win.

East Carolina finished second with 587 points a year ago, but the Cougars were a close third with 585 points. Rice, Tulane and Marshall rounded out the rest of the field.

On the men's side, the Mustangs scored 974 points to sweep both crowns. East Carolina finished second with the Rainbow Warriors coming in third.

Final Women's Team Meet Recaps
East Carolina
ECU closed out the regular season with a loss to Duke. The Lady Pirates fell 161-137 and dropped to 9-4 overall. Junior Rebecca Perry led the Lady Pirates with three first place finishes.

Houston
Andrea Pa'lmai won a pair of individual events and was a member of a second-place relay team to help lead the Cougars to a dominating 237-99 win over New Orleans during the final day of a quad meet at the LSU Natatorium. The Cougars fell to Conference USA rival Rice 189-152 and dropped a 233-120 decision to host LSU on the final day of competition at the two-day meet. With that, the Cougars ended the 2007 regular season with a 17-6 overall record, nearly doubling the previous single-season record of nine wins set by the 2005-06 and 2003-04 teams.

Marshall
Despite impressive individual performances from junior Michaela Sceli and freshman Kristin Wheatley, Marshall was unable to overcome a late-surging Ohio Bobcats squad 176.5-123.5. The Herd (5-6), which finished the year 5-4 at home, missed out on clinching its second winning season in the program's five-year existence.

Rice
Junior distance specialist Brittany Massengale led a 1-2-3 Rice finish in the 500-yard freestyle as the Rice swim team won two of the three dual meets on the second day of competition at the LSU Quad Meet in Baton Rouge, La. In the three dual meets scored simultaneously, the Owls defeated Conference USA rival Houston 189-152 and the University of New Orleans 255-59. The Blue & Gray fell to meet host LSU 216-131. Rice closed out the dual meet portion of its 2006-07 schedule with a 10-6 record, the most wins for the Owls in the last five years.

SMU
Anja Carman leads the way for the defendings champs as she has posted a Mustang top time in five events this season while Petra Klosova claims four event top times. Tamara Sambrailo specializes in the breaststroke events, while freshman Justine Clark has stepped up in the butterfly events and Katie Roberts paces the middle distance freestylers. An SMU women's swimmer or diver has garnered weekly C-USA athlete of the week honors eight times this season. The women have posted the best conference times in 19 of the 21 events this season, holding the top two spots in 15 of the events. SMU is currently ranked No. 12 in the latest swimming polls. The team also boasts a league-best seven different individuals hlding top 50 times on the newest top times chart.