Oct. 31, 2006

IRVING, Texas - All five Conference USA swimming and diving programs were in action last weekend with Houston, Rice and SMU all participating in the first league match-ups of the season. East Carolina improved to 4-0 with a non-conference victory over William & Mary on Friday, while Marshall went to 3-0 with a win over Youngstown State. League foes Rice and SMU battled in a dual meet on Friday, with the No. 8 Mustangs coming out with a 178-83 win. Houston, SMU and No. 25 Oregon State swam a tri-meet on Saturday morning and again the Ponies backed up their national ranking. SMU swept the event defeating both the Cougars (133-106) and the Beavers (155-77).

EAST CAROLINA
East Carolina remained undefeated after defeating William & Mary in a dual meet on Friday. The Lady Pirates improved to 4-0 with a 133-110 victory.

Junior Megan Pulaski recorded her fastest times of the season in both the 500-yard (5:02.89) and 1,000-yard (10:15.46) freestyle, placing first in each event, as she was the only other member of the team to win a pair of individual events.

ECU swept four events. Kate Gordon (2:05.80) posted a first place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, while sophomore Allison Miller (2:07.35) touched first in the 200-yard backstroke.

Freshman Jacquelynn Jones helped the Pirates complete the sweep of the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.12.

The foursome of Katlin Potts, Jennie Meade, Rachel Blue and Gordon earned a first place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:33.62.

Junior diver Christie Icenhower set a varsity record on the 11 dives one-meter boards.

ECU swept their second meet in as many when it defeated Towson in a dual meet Saturday afternoon at Burdick Pool.

Junior Rebecca Perry won a pair of individual events and swam the anchor leg in the 400-medley relay as ECU (5-0) extended its win streak to five straight meets with a 158-81 non-conference victory over the Tigers (3-1).

Perry took first place in the 50-free with a time of :24.11 while earning a victory in the 100-free by touching the wall in :52.23. She also swam the anchor leg of the Pirates' victorious 400-medley relay team, which finished with a mark of 3:55.53.

Pulaski also won a pair of events for the Pirates, finishing first in the 1000-free (10:37.05) and the 500-free (5:06.94).

The Tigers were led by sophomore Jennie Katch (North Penn H.S./Lansdale, Pa.), who finished first in the three-meter diving event with a score of 212.55 points. Freshman Jennifer Sullivan (Gates Chili H.S./Rochester, N.Y.) took first place in the 200-breaststroke by earning a time of 2:33.60.

The Lady Pirates earned first place in 10 of the 13 events to win the meet.

ECU returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 4, as the Pirates will face Duquesne, Marshall and West Virginia.

HOUSTON
Houston sophomore Anastasia Pozdniakova swept the diving competition to lead the Cougars during a tri-meet against two nationally ranked opponents Saturday morning at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium.

SMU, which was ranked No. 8 in the latest CollegeSwimming.com and College Swimming Coaches Association of America Top 25 polls, claimed a 133-106 win over the Cougars. The Cougars also fell 121-116 to No. 25 Oregon State in a meet that was not decided until the final event of the day.

SMU took a 155-77 win over Oregon State to sweep the tri-meet.

With the loss, the Cougars saw their five-meet winning streak come to an end and fell to 5-2 overall. It was the longest winning streak for UH since the 1983-84 team won its final three dual meets and the 1984-85 squad won its first three meets of the season.

The Cougars' five-meet winning streak was the longest in school history to open a season.

The Cougars held a slim lead over Oregon State heading into the final event of the day, the 800-yard freestyle relay. However, the Beavers pulled away halfway through that event to win by less than three seconds over the host Cougars and seal the meet victory.

Pozdniakova, the reigning Conference USA Freshman Diver of the Year, won the 3-meter diving competition with 316.58 points and earned a similar finish on the 1-meter board with 328.73 points. The Elektrostal, Russia, native was the only diver in either event to top 300 points.

Senior captain Rachel Gitelson finished second on the 3-meter board, while junior transfer Ginni van Katwijk claimed second place on the 1-meter board to lead the UH divers.

On the swimming side, senior captain Szintia Szanto captured first place in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.26 and earned a second-place showing in the 200-yard butterfly. The Budapest, Hungary, native also finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Sophomore Sasha Schwendenwein won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:51.37 and finished second in the 500-yard freestyle.

Sophomore Andrea Pa'lmai finished third in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.

The Cougars return to action next weekend as they play host to the Phill Hansel Duals Weekend at the CRWC Natatorium. Conference USA rival Rice, Nevada, New Orleans, Trinity and Mesa State are scheduled to compete at the two-day event, which begins at 4 p.m., Friday and 10 a.m., Saturday.

MARSHALL
Senior Brittany Csonka and junior Lauren Ford posted lifetime bests in the 200-yard backstroke and butterfly, respectively, to help guide Marshall to a 195-162 home victory over the Youngstown State Penguins Saturday.

The Herd (3-0) extended its home winning streak to four meets, while improving to 5-0 all-time versus the Penguins (0-1). Csonka was victorious in the 200-yard backstroke, touching the wall at 2:11.67, which bested her previous career-best time by more than one second. Ford, who won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:13.13, later cruised to a victory in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:27.82).

Junior co-captains Ashley McIlvain and Renee Lambert displayed a strong showing, each winning an event. McIlvain won the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 17:38.16. Teammate Danielle Chappelle finished second in 17:50.52, while Lambert won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:57.38.

Marshall school record-holder Michaela Sceli won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.62.

Julia Petzka was the Herd's top freshman performer, winning the 100-yard backstroke in a season-best time of 1:01.30. She also set a season-best time in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 28.83.

Sophomore Siobhan Schuurman won the three-meter boards with a score of 231.38, while finishing second to Youngstown State's Kelly Reese in the one-meter boards.

Megan Rupe was one of the Penguins' few bright spots Saturday. Rupe recorded wins in the 50- (25.28) and 100-yard freestyle (55.06) events. Lara Munro (200-yard butterfly) and Becky Bertuzzi (100-yard butterfly) posted Youngstown State's only other individual wins.

The Tundering Herd continues its homestand next weekend when it hosts West Virginia, Duquesne and East Carolina in a 12:30 p.m. quad-meet Saturday.

RICE
It was a case of good news-bad news, for the Rice swim team Friday evening at the Rice Pool. The Owls posted a number of season-best times up and down the roster, but the SMU Mustangs showed why they are the eighth-ranked team in the country on the way to a 178-83 Conference USA dual meet win over the Blue & Gray.

SMU won all 14 of the events in their first dual meet action of the season. The Mustangs posted 1-2 finishes four times and even had two swimmers, sophomore Petra Klosova and junior Anja Carman, respectively make the NCAA provisional standard in winning the 100-yard freestyle (50.89) and 200 backstroke (2:00.96) in back-to-back races.

Rice posted better times Friday than the team did in the big dual meet win over the University of Denver two weeks ago in Colorado. Junior sprinter Carlyann Miller recorded a pair of second place finishes with season-best times in the 100-free (52.35) and 200-free (1:53.59).

Freshman Pam Zelnick notched a pair of second-place finishes in the breaststroke events, including a Rice-best 2:23.71 in the 200. Fellow freshman Justine Lin lowered her times in both backstroke events and rookie Erin Mattson tallied a season-best 2:07.27 for second place in the 200-butterfly.

Junior Jennifer Hill was particularly strong with a 2:08.60 for second in the 200-individual medley. The Owls' 400-freestyle relay team of Miller, Skylar Craig, Zelnick and Diane Gu improved its best time of the year to 3:29.13.

The Owls had to endure a tough break for the meet that junior Amy Halsey was temporarily sidelined from competitive action. The backstroke star from Katy, Texas, said she would be back racing for the Blue & Gray next week at the Houston Cougar Invitational on Nov. 3-4 across town at UH.

SMU
The No. 8 SMU women's swimming and diving team swept Rice in all 14 events on Friday as the Mustangs defeated the Owls for the 178-83 win. This was the first head-to-head meet for the Mustangs this season.

The Mustangs opened the night by clocking in almost two seconds faster than both Rice relays in the 400 medley relay. Petra Klosova, Tamara Sambrailo, Angela San Juan Cisneros and Leane Darling raced for a relay time of 3:54.48.

SMU took first and second in the 1000 free with Anja Carman touching the wall at 10:10.06 and Katie Roberts following at 10:12.40. In the 200 free, Jennifer Blackman out-touched Rice's Carlyann Miller for a time of 1:52.40 while Celina Lemmen finished third with 1:53.79.

Carman took top honors in the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.90 and Leane Darling followed at 58.25. In the 100 breast, Sambrailo clocked in at 1:06.14 as Jennifer Basel and Jamie Williamson placed third and fourth respectively.

Freshman Justine Clark took first-place in the 200 fly with a time of 2:04.41 while Federica Felloni placed fifth with 2:18.01. Klosova notched two first-place finishes in a row, first, in the 50 free with a time of 23.62 and then in the 100 free. Also in the 50 free, Michelle Vlasakova placed third at 24.59 and San Juan Cisneros notched a fourth-place finish with a time of 24.75. In addition to Klosova taking first in the 100 free she made NCAA provisional standard with a time of 50.89 in the 100 free. Darling took third in the 100 free as she clocked in at 52.41 and Vlasakova finished fifth.

In the following event, Carman made the NCAA provisional standard when she won the 200 back clocking in at 2:00.96. Lemmen finished third with a time of 2:08.13. Sambrailo notched another first-place finish with a time of 2:22.45 in the 200 breast. Williamson followed in third-place with a time of 2:23.74 while Basel clocked in at 2:25.31 for fourth place.

Roberts clocked in at 4:56.73 in the 500 free for a first-place finish and J. Blackman followed with a second-place finish and a time of 5:00.94. Tiffany Sammis came in sixth-place with a time of 5:14.89.

Clark took another first-place finish in the 100 fly when she clocked in at 57.01. San Juan Cisneros made second-place with a time of 57.85. In the 200 IM, Basel claimed first-place just out-touching Rice with a time of 2:07.22 while Sambrailo finished third with a time of 2:12.82. Williamson clocked in for fifth-place with a time of 2:14.16.

The night was concluded with the 400 free relay where J. Blackman, Vlasakova, Darling and Klosova touched in first with a time of 3:27.35. The other Mustang relay team consisting of Lemmen, Clark, San Juan Cisneros and Roberts finished third with a time of 3:32.49.

After sweeping Rice in a match-up Friday, the Mustangs continued their dominance in an early morning tri-meet against No. 25 Oregon St. and Conference USA foe, Houston on Saturday. SMU defeated Oregon St. 155-77, and Houston, 133-106.

The Mustangs opened the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay as Klosova, Sambrailo, San Juan Cisneros and Darling combined for a time of 1:45.39. SMU dominated in the 1000 free as Carman and Roberts took first and second, respectively. Carman clocked in at 10:08.06 while Roberts touched in at 10:13.44. Felloni clocked in at 10:45.18 for sixth-place.

In the 200 free, Blackman was just out-touched by Houston's Sasha Schwedenwien as J. Blackman took second with a time of 1:51.74. Lemmen finished fourth with a time of 1:54.47 while Sammis finished ninth, clocking in at 1:59.82. The Mustangs took the top three spots in the 50 free as Klosova took the title with a time of 23.40. Darling finished second with a time of 23.94 and San Juan Cisneros came in third with a time of 24.59. Vlasakova clocked in at 24.75 for a sixth-place finish. Basel swam for third-place in the 200 IM with a time of 2:10.75 and Sambrailo followed in fourth with a time of 2:11.76. Jaime Willamson placed fifth with a time of 2:12.77.

With a break in the swimming action, the divers took to the boards, starting with three-meter diving. Kristin Schild compiled a score of 267.83 for third-place and Mara Morhouse took fifth-place with a mark of 158.10.

Clark touched the wall at 2:05.35 for a third-place finish in the 200 fly and Felloni finished fifth with a time of 2:15.97. The Mustangs took the top-three spots in the 100 free with Klosova leading the way. She clocked in at 50.63 for first-place while J. Blackman took second-place with a time of 52.55. Vlasakova rounded out the top three with a time of 53.25. Carman added another first-place finish to her list with a win in the 200 back and a time of 2:00.36. Lemmen finished in fourth-place with a time of 2:10.45. Roberts held out for the win in the 500 free, clocking in at 4:58.13 as Sammis clocked a time of 5:17.77, coming in at seventh-place.

In the one-meter diving event, Schild notched third-place with a score of 241.35. Morhouse came in at fifth-place with a score of 186.08 and Anastasia Cantonis placed sixth with a mark of 129.83.

Continuing the swimming events, Sambrailo finished third in the 200 breast with a time of 2:20.77 while Basel came in fourth, clocking in a 2:22.68. Willamson touched the wall at 2:24.44 for a fifth-place finish.

Candace Blackman, J. Blackman, Lemmen and Roberts ended the meet, touching the wall four seconds before any other team in the 800 free relay. The relay team combined for a time of 7:31.94.

The Mustangs return to the waters at North Texas on Nov. 10. The meet is slated for a 5:00 p.m. start.