Rice University Athletics
Rice University
Nebraska
VICTORY! Swimmers Win Nebraska Cornhusker Invitational
11/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 23, 2008
LINCOLN, Neb -- Junior Pam Zelnick won the 100-yard freestyle and freshman Louise Gliga won the 200-butterfly to lead the Rice swimmers to the team title of the annual Cornhusker Invitational Sunday evening in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Owls led the four-day, 21-event, nine-team swim meet from from start to finish. Rice posted a final team total of 1,200 points. North Texas was second with 1,079 points and Colorado State was third (1,067). Iowa State held fourth (979) while meet host Nebraska was fifth (867). South Dakota St. (218), Northern Colorado (201), Nebraska-Omaha (188) and Northern Iowa (167) rounded-out the final standings.
"Obviously I am very pleased," said Rice head coach Seth Huston. "It's not just with the way we improved on our event times, which we did, but I was very pleased with the way we competed. We had close races all week and we swam like we wanted to win them. Everyone gave a great effort all week and we entered the most we could in every event. We were pretty tired heading into today, but it wasn't over because there are good teams here. We didn't give up or give in, and won the meet.
"We've won meets before, even multi-team ones, but I think this is the best we've raced and competed since I've been here," Huston added. "I feel like having this kind of performance again at the end of the season in the Conference USA meet would mean a lot. I think this shows our depth is really improved and we can work on getting three or four in the finals at conference like we did this week."
Zelnick notched her second individual win of the weekend by taking the 100-freestyle with a season-best time of 51.71. Senior Carlyann Miller was third with a season-best 52.04.
Two events later Gliga swam a career-best 2:03.93 in the 200-fly to win her first collegiate event. The Cleveland, Ohio, native led a scoring barrage that included three Owls in the top six spots. Erin Mattson, who is back competing after sitting out all of last season with an injury, registered her best time in two years (2:05.21) to take fourth. Sophomore Ashten Ackerman was sixth (2:07.77) overall after racing in back-to-back events. Ackerman finished second in the championship finals of the 200-breaststroke (2:22.11) and followed that up with the finals of the 200-fly. Freshman Alex O'Brien also scored for the team with a fifth in the 200-breaststroke (2:23.94).
The Owls had solid performances from Skylar Craig and Kait Chura, who were second and fourth, respectively, in the 200-backstroke. Junior Justine Lin won the consolation final of the 200-backstroke and Angela Wo won the consolation final of the 200-butterfly.
Rice swimmers won six individual events and three relays over the course of the four-day meet. Zelnick and freshman Shelby Bottoms both won multiple events. A recap from each day of the meet can be found on RiceOwls.com.
FINAL - Cornhusker Invitational Scores
1. Rice Owls 1,200
2. North Texas 1,079
3. Colorado State 1,067
4. Iowa State 979
5. Nebraska 867
6. South Dakota St. 218
7. Northern Colorado 201
8. Nebraska-Omaha 188
9. Northern Iowa 167
Players Mentioned
