Rice University
Conference USA Championships
Swimmers In Second Place At C-USA Championship Meet
2/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 28, 2008
Conference USA Swim Championship Web Site
Championship program pdf Link here for a map of the UH Recreation Center Natatorium
HOUSTON -- Senior Brittany Massengale and junior Carlyann Miller posted second and third place finishes in their respective events, and the Rice relay team of Keri Hyde, Pam Zelnick, Skylar Craig and Miller took second in the 400-medley relay to pace the Owls' swim team on the second day of competition at the 2008 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday night across town at the University of Houston Recreation Center Natatorium.
Both Miller (the sprinter) and Massengale (the distance specialist) provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships next month in Columbus, Ohio, with their performances Thursday. Massengale was second among a field of 20 competitors in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:48.38. No only did Miller blaze to a career-best 22.96 to take third out of 38 swimmers in the 50-free, her mark is now the fourth-fastest time in school history.
The Rice duo led led their teammates to a fairly big point total from the two events and the Owls are now in second place in the team standings with two days left in the championship meet. SMU holds first with 323 points while Rice is next with 213. East Carolina is in third (178 points), followed by meet host Houston (125) and Marshall (116).
The Owls posted almost identical places in the vastly different 50 and 500 races. In the 500, Junior Caitlin Warner was fifth with a personal best 4:56.88. Freshman Sarah Korellis was eighth with a collegiate-best 5:04.59 and fellow freshman Karen Gerken was tenth (5:04.84).
In the sprint Zelnick was sixth with a 23.51, but she had a career-best 23.41 in the morning prelims. Junior Diane Gu was eighth (23.93) after just missing her personal best in the prelims by two one-hundredths of a second. Sophomore Megan Land was 15th with a Rice-best 24.27.
Freshman Kait Chura made the championship finals of the 200-individual medley with a collegiate-best 2:07.15. Stephanie Eberhardt scored for the Blue & Gray in the event with a 2:10.27.
The day's action concluded with the 400-medley relay and the Owls were up for the task. Hyde swam the lead leg and started it off with the fastest 100-backstroke in school history (56.30). Miller brought it home for a final time of 3:47.52, the third-fastest 400-medley relay at Rice.
Rice head coach Seth Huston made a slight adjustment with the lineup for Thursday's events, holding back the number of possible entries in order get a bigger potential scoring punch over the next two days of the meet. Huston entered only 11 swimmers in events on Thursday, but 10 of them qualified in the morning prelims to race in the evening's finals. In short, the quality-over-quantity move worked maybe even better than expected.
"Yeah, it was a little bit of a roll of the dice, but the team did another great job," Huston said. "We entered 11 and 10 came back, and seven made the championship final. We'll come back tomorrow with 20 or 21 entries and now see what we can score with some numbers behind us. We're swimming well so it should be an interesting day Friday."
The 2008 C-USA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship continues Friday (Feb. 28) at UH with prelims beginning at 10 am. Finals are slated for 6 pm. Results will be posted daily on www.RiceOwls.com. The remaining schedule of events is as follows...
2008 C-USA Swimming & Diving Championship Schedule
FRI., FEBRUARY 29
Preliminaries - 10 am
400-Yard Individual Medley
100-Yard Butterfly
200-Yard Freestyle
100-Yard Breaststroke
100-Yard Backstroke
Diving Preliminaries - 1 pm
3-Meter (Men)
1-Meter (Women)
Finals - 6 pm
200-Yard Freestyle Relay
1-Meter Diving (Women)
400-Yard Individual Medley
100-Yard Butterfly
3-Meter Diving (Men)
200-Yard Freestyle
100-Yard Breaststroke
100-Yard Backstroke
SAT., MARCH 1
Preliminaries - 10 am
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
1,650-Yard Freestyle
Diving Preliminaries - 1 pm
Platform (Men & Women)
Finals - 6 pm
1,650-Yard Freestyle
Platform Diving (Women)
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (Men)
Players Mentioned
