Swimmers Compete At SMU Classic This Weekend
10/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Oct. 21, 2009
The Rice swim team competes against five elite teams, Florida, Florida State, Wisconsin, Louisville and host SMU in the annual SMU Classic on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 23-24) in Dallas.
There are nine events on each day of the meet, including 12 individual races, four relays and two diving events. It seems traditional enough, but the format has been highly-streamlined to just two entries per event. Each team, in fact, will be a squad of just eight swimmers to give the meet a "best-against-the-best" type of showdown.
To pick the best Rice eight for the meet head coach Seth Huston, now in his eighth year at the helm of the Owl program, looked at who did well in the team's previous meet, kept a close eye on the team's training and balanced that against the Classic's order of the events. The Owl octet who made the cut consisted of: seniors Erin Mattson, Angela Wo and Pam Zelnick, junior Kait Chura, sophomores Shelby Bottoms, Nicole Delaloye and Alex O'Brien, and true freshman Stephanie Wei. Coach Huston said there are a host of challenges unique to this particular meet, but he's liked what he's seen in training.
"Allowing for only eight swimmers forces you to create a versatile lineup," Huston explained. "We will not be able to swim our top two athletes in every event, although at this point in the season our lineup is definitely wide open.
"Our training changed last week, as we moved into a new phase," he added. "Between the work they are putting into training and a little team-sickness we had going around, we are pretty beat up. Still, I have been very impressed with Alex, Nicole, Stephanie and Kait. They have been very consistent from day-to-day over the last few weeks."
Rice's previous meet was its season-opener, a double-dual held across town at the University of Houston on Oct. 9-10. The Owls (1-1) defeated Florida International but lost to Houston. Huston said he is looking for the team to go for it, but facing so many national-caliber teams is a battle.
"The competition this weekend is tough," Huston said. "Florida is consistently a top-five team and every other team is either receiving votes or finished in the Top 25 last season. This weekend we really need to step up and compete. We have nothing to lose going up against these teams. I expect us to swim much better than we did at UH."
Results from each day of the meet will be posted on RiceOwls.com. The meet-order is as follows:
Schedule of Events
Friday (Oct. 23)
1. 400 Medley Relay
2. 400 Individual Medley
3. 200 Freestyle
4. 100 Butterfly
5. One-meter diving
6. 100 Backstroke
7. 100 Breaststroke
8. 50 Freestyle
9. 800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday (Oct. 24)
1. 400 Freestyle Relay
2. 500 Freestyle
3. 200 Backstroke
4. 200 Breaststroke
5. Three-meter Diving
6. 100 Freestyle
7. 200 Butterfly
8. 200 Individual Medley
9. 200 Freestyle Relay
Players Mentioned
