Rice University
C-USA Championships
Swimmers Battling For Second Place At C-USA Championships
2/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 26, 2010
HOUSTON -- Veterans Erin Mattson and Angela Wo finished second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly to pace the Rice swim team on the third day of competition at the 2010 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships Friday night across town at the University of Houston Recreation Center Natatorium.
After three days of the four-day competition, Rice is battling for second place in the team standings with 405 points. The Owls are behind SMU (503 pts.) and just ahead of East Carolina (397). Meet host Houston is fourth (364.5), followed by Tulane (187) and Marshall (125).
Mattson and Wo began the meet as the first and third relay legs of the Owls' 4x50 sprint crew. With teammates Pam Zelnick and Alison Godbe the Owl foursome finished third in the 200-free relay with a 1:33.08 that was close to one of the best marks in school history. Mattson then came back and won silver in the 100-fly with a 54.64, just missing her career-best mark of 54.63 that stands as the third-best at Rice.
Wo was right on-pace in the same 100-fly and touched-in a close third place at 54.67. The mark was Wo's career-best and vaulted her right behind Mattson for the fourth-best 100-fly in school history. Wo, however, wasn't finished with her assault on the Owls' record book. The senior from Hightower High School also finished fourth in the 100-backstroke with a 56.20 that is the fifth-best time in Rice swimming.
Zelnick meanwhile took sixth in the 100-breaststroke with a 1:03.56. Her 1:03.32 in the morning prelims is the third-best time at Rice and the fastest mark by an Owl in more than nine years.
Rice seemed to have one group re-writing the school record book and another piling up big team points in the meet standings. In the 400-individual medley the Owl trio of Alex O'Brien, Shelby Bottoms and Kait Chura were third, fourth and fifth, respectively. O'Brien's career-best time of 4:20.99 was the fastest by an Owl in eight years close to erasing her current assistant coach, the great Jada (Sanders) Hallmark, from the top five 400-IM spots in school history (4:20.97).
The Blue & Gray came up big with four of the final eighth spots in the 200-freestyle. True freshman Danielle Spence led the Rice charge with a career-best 1:50.96 for fifth place. Alison Godbe (1:51.78), Stephanie Wei (1:52.49) and Karen Gerken rounded out the final spots in the 200-free's championship final.
The 2010 C-USA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship conclude Saturday (Feb. 27) 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.
2010 C-USA Swimming & Diving Championship - Remaining Swim Schedule
SAT., FEBRUARY 27
Preliminaries - 10 am
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
1,650-Yard Freestyle Preliminaries & Finals
Finals - 6 pm
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
400-Yard Freestyle Relay
Players Mentioned
