Rice University
C-USA Championships
Swimmers Take Second Place At Conference USA Meet
2/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 17, 2007
Results
Photo gallery from the meet
HOUSTON -- Led by freshman Erin Mattson's individual title in the 200-yard butterfly, the Rice swim team posted the program's best-ever finish in a conference championship meet with a second place in the final team standings at the 2007 Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships Saturday evening across town at the University of Houston Recreation & Wellness Center.
The Owls recorded a total of 653.5 points to finish in second place behind 2007 champion SMU (923 points). The Mustangs are the 12th-ranked team in the nation and the back-to-back C-USA winner from a year ago. The Rice women's team amassed its highest point total in a league's championship meet since it's first year as a member of the Southwest Conference in 1983. The Owls were members of the Western Athletic Conference from 1997 to 2005. The Blue & Gray wrapped up its second year in Conference USA with the league's second place trophy. East Carolina held on for third place (586 points) while meet host Houston was fourth (577 points). Marshall was fifth with 381.5.
After a modest 11th place finish in the 200-individual medley on Thursday and a seventh-place finish in the 100-butterfly on Friday, it looked like Mattson was only quietly contributing to the team's growing point total. In hindsight, it now looks like she was only getting warmed up as the meet progressed. The freshman from Highland, Ill., had the best time in the morning prelims (2:04.92) to earn the 200-fly's top seed. In the championship final she had a solid start off the block and held second place for the first half of the race behind East Carolina's Kate Gordon.
Mattson took the lead by two-tenths of a second at the 150-yard mark, but now she had a new problem. SMU freshman Justine Clark, the C-USA's top butterflier all season long and 100-fly champion from the day before, was shadowing Mattson for second place before pulling even as the duo turned for the last 25 yards. Both kept it in high gear for the final dash, but it was Mattson who won the conference championship with a time of 2:01.94, a scant two-one-hundredths of second ahead of Clark's silver medal time of 2:01.96. The winning 2:01.94 is the third-fastest time in Rice history and a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Championship meet next month in Minneapolis.
Mattson is the first Rice individual conference champion since 2003 when Mandy Mularz and Lauren Hill both won WAC titles in the freestyle and breaststroke, respectively. Two days before the Owls' foursome of Keri Hyde, Pam Zelnick, Skylar Craig and Carlyann Miller won the C-USA championship in the 400-medley relay.
The relays, and all the Owls up and down the roster, continued to shine in Saturday's final day of competition. The 400-freestye relay team of Brittany Massengale, Miller, Craig and Diane Gu recorded the second-fastest time in school history (3:23.15) to take second place at the meet.
Massengale also won bronze with a third place in the mile on the strength of a season-best/NCAA provisional time of 16:41.68. Sophomore Caitlin Warner was fifth in the event (17:10.83) and freshman Stephanie Eberhardt was 12th (17:44.19).
Freshman Justine Lin won bronze in the 200-backstroke with a 2:02.26 that is one of the top-five marks in Rice history. Lin led a big Rice contingent in the 200-back as four Owls finished in the top six. Craig was fourth (2:03.11), Hyde was fifth (2:05.36) and Jennifer Hill was sixth (2:06.05) to cap a stacked final.
Sprinters Miller and Gu were fifth and eighth, respectively, in the 100-freestyle (51.12 and 51.83). Zelnick was the team's top scorer in the 200-breaststroke (2:24.43 to finish 11th). Almost lost among the excitement of Mattson's individual championship was that five Owls scored in the 200-fly. Hyde was seventh and freshman Angela Wo won the consolation finals. Natalie Kirchoff and Allyson Lemay were also scorers in the event.
In its conference swimming history, Rice finished as high as third place in the final league standings a total of five times. The Blue & Gray was third at the WAC Championships for five consecutive years from 1999 to 2003. The Owls were fourth at the C-USA meet its first year in the league in 2006.
The Rice swimming season continues with one final "last chance" meet Feb. 22-24 in Austin. The official list of qualifiers for the national meet will be released by the NCAA the following week. The NCAA Championships are March 8-10.
Rice Finishes At Conference Championship Meets
Southwest ConferenceYear Place Points1983 8th 1171984 8th 581985 8th 1571986 7th 2121987 7th 2311988 7th 2141989 7th 2291990 7th 2471991 7th 2771992 4th 4131993 5th 3501994 5th 349.51995 4th 424.51996 4th 381
Western AthleticYear Place Points1997 5th 3811998 5th 2751999 3rd 4012000 3rd 582.52001 3rd 481.52002 3rd 5412003 3rd 506.52004 4th 5512005 4th 476
Conference USAYear Place Points2006 4th 540.52007 2nd 653.5
Players Mentioned
