Women Swimmers & Divers Repeat as AAC Champs

[Water Pony]

HOUSTON (SMU) – The SMU women’s swimming and diving team won 10 of 18 swimming events, including a sweep of all five relays to defend its American Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday Night at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on the campus of the University of Houston. The Championship is the Mustangs’ second in the three-year history of The American, and 17th in the last 20 seasons.

The Mustangs finished with 681 points, while runner-up Tulane registered 637.5. Houston was third at 554, Cincinnati fourth with 536, East Carolina fifth at 515.5 and Connecticut sixth totaling 457.

SMU closed out the Championship with the win in the 400-yard freestyle relay as Adrienn Santa, Hannah Rogers, Maddie Hoch and Vicky Cunningham out-touched Cincinnati by a narrow margin clocking a winning time of 3:19.75. The Mustangs led from the dive and staved off a comeback by the Swimmer of the Meet, Cincinnati’s Jacqueline Keire, and Cunningham brought it home for the win with an impressive 48.79.

Marne Erasmus won the Ponies’ lone individual Championship of the night, completing the butterfly sweep, taking the 200 distance in a career-best 1:58.26. Anna Cheesbrough joined Erasmus on the podium, placing second in 1:58.38.

In the event’s B Final, Kathleen Charron improved her time and placement from prelims to finish 13th overall, and Tiffany Sudarma was 15th.

The Mustangs had three swimmers in the A Final of the 100-yard freestyle, and leading the way was relay anchor Cunningham touching under the NCAA B standard at 49.36. Sophomore Adri Santa and junior Hannah Rogers both improved on their prelim times to place fourth and sixth, respectively.

In the 200-yard breaststroke, both Tara-Lynn Nicholas and Kirsty McLauchlan advanced to the top final, with 100-distance champion Nicholas earning a spot on the podium as the runner-up. McLauchlan, who swept the individual medley events, placed eighth.

SMU picked up crucial points in the 1,650-yard freestyle with freshman El Yellin leading the way finishing fifth. Alexandra Manasso was just behind at sixth, while Hoch was ninth and Ashley Mercadel finished 15th.

In the 200-yard backstroke, senior Anna Volchkov secured fifth-place points for SMU with her race in the Championship Final, clocking the NCAA B standard 1:59.19 exactly, and Ursa Bezan was 13th overall at 2:02.04.

Junior Lauren Lamb closed out her Championship with a fourth-place performance on the platform scoring a 186.20.

Head coach Steve Collins and assistant coach Ashley Dell were honored as the 2016 AAC Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year, an award the staff was also honored with in 2015.