One Day Away from bein Champions

[Mustangs35SMU]

Women's WAC Championship
SMU extended its lead after day three of the 2004 Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championship. The defending champion Mustangs won three gold medals on the night to increase its lead. SMU currently stands in first with 625 points.

Hawai‘i junior Yan Chen captured her second individual medal with an NCAA automatic-qualifying time of 4:15.64 in the 400-yard individual medley. Chen finished second in the event last year. SMU senior Andrea Cassidy finished second with a time of 4:20.32, while teammate Sara Nordenstam was third with a time of 4:22.19.

In the 100-yard butterfly, SMU's Georgina Lee captured gold for the second-straight season with a time of 53.33, an automatic qualifying time. Her first place time was a season best and the fastest time in the WAC this season. Rice’s Urska Ros was second with a time of 55.14. Hawai‘i’s Mia Broden took the bronze with a time of 55.18.

In the 200-yard freestyle, SMU freshman Celina Lemmen won her first individual title, taking the gold with an automatic qualifying time of 1:47.55. Teammate Marizanne Grundlingh was second with a time of 1:48.50. Rice senior Jackie Corcoran took third with a time of 1:49.97.

Nevada became the first school besides Hawai‘i and SMU to win a gold when senior Leticia Cunha won the 100-yard breastroke with a time 1:03.39. Cunha finished second in the breaststroke last season. Rice junior Lauren Hill took the silver with a time of 1:04.24. SMU’s Laura Pomeroy won the bronze with a time of 1:04.29. All three swimmers swam their best breaststroke of the year.

The Rainbow Wahine took the gold and silver in the 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Nicole Mackey won her second gold medal of the meet after also taking first in the 200-yard individual medley on Friday. YingJuan Zhen was second with a time of 56.05. Zhen was the winner of the backstroke last season. Nevada’s Sarabeth Schweitzer took third with a time of 56.18. This was the first event in which SMU did not finish in the top three.

Hawai‘i diver Qiongjie Huang captured her second gold medal in as many nights, winning the three-meter diving title. Huan took the title with 507.60 points. Junior Maggie Roberts was second with a score of 484.45. Roberts was also second in the one-meter. SMU’s Elizabeth Pike took third with a score of 472.30.

The SMU team of Alex Miciul, Sara Nordenstam, Georgina Lee and Celina Lemmen won the final event of the night, the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:42.67. Hawai‘i finished second, while Nevada took third.

After three days of competition, SMU remains in first place with 625 points, followed by Hawai‘i with 484 points. Nevada is third with 423 points. Rice stands in fourth followed by San Jose State and Fresno State, respectively. Action concludes tomorrow at Palo Alto College Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas at 11:00 a.m. with the preliminaries and at 6:30 p.m. for the finals of the 1650-yard freestyle.

Men's NIC Championship
Day three of the National Independent Conference Championship kicked off at Oakland University on Friday with a total of fifteen records - seven NIC, and eight pool - records broken. The SMU men's swimming & diving team continues to lead on the men's side with 617 points. Hawaii stands in second with 589 points.

The 100 fly event saw records crash as SMU's Camilo Becerra smashed a 15-year-old record. Becerra touched the pad in a time of 47.37 taking out the previous NIC record set by Wade King in 1989 of 47.39. Becerra also set a new pool record beating the old record of 47.74 set in 2001. Oakland’s Chris Sullivan (Rockford, Mich.) placed second in the race finishing with a time of 47.90.

On the men’s one-meter diving boards it was the Mustangs' Philip Griffin who finished first with a score of 322.50. Mike Gowdy of Hawaii was a close second with 320.75 points followed by teammate Jonathon Coyle with 301.10.

Concluding the night was the 400 medley relay event which saw Oakland capture the women’s race and Hawaii taking the men’s race. Oakland’s foursome of Renie Green (Dearborn, Mich.), Musialczyk, Korniyenko and Strelets set a new NIC and pool record hitting at 3:45.10 breaking Oakland’s 2001 NIC record of 3:46.00. Florida Atlantic finished a close second in the race with a time of 3:45.43. For the men it was Hawaii’s quad of Thew, Bloch, Nimrod Palma, and Kurt Boehm that touched the wall at 3:13.88 to finish first and nearly two seconds ahead of second place finisher SMU.

The NIC championships conclude on Saturday with prelims beginning at 11 a.m. and finals finishing at 6:30 p.m.

[Sam I Am]

The ladies swim team won their 8th straight WAC swim title. Way to go.

[PK]

The men's team won their fourth straight NIC championship also ahead of the Hawaii team.