Owls Host Miami Hurricanes Saturday In Dual Meet
10/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Oct. 20, 2011
The Rice swim team is back in home action on Saturday (Oct. 22) in a dual meet against the Miami Hurricanes. Start time is set for 11:30 am on campus at the David & Barbara Gibbs Recreation & Wellness Center Competition Pool.
Last week (Oct. 15) the Owls hosted a red-hot SMU Mustangs team in a season-opening Conference USA dual meet. Rice head coach Seth Huston stated the Hurricanes present another tough challenge Saturday. After facing this same Miami team that set nine pool records in a dual meet at the Rice facility last season, the Owls' head coach is well-aware of the task at hand.
"Miami has a lot of speed," coach Huston said. "They will be similar to SMU. I was pleased with our performances last weekend, but we will need to win more races then last week in order to win the meet.
"I think swimming at home, and in our pool, is definitely a positive for us," coach Huston added. "We want to take the momentum from last weekend and improve upon it. We've had some good training. Alex O'Brien, Quincy Christian, Lilly Marrow, and Marissa Konicke were rocking this week."
O'Brien came up big against SMU with an Owl win in the 1,000-freestyle. The senior from St. Paul, Minn., posted an eye-opening 10:18.47 to lead a 1-2-3 Rice finish in the race in front of junior Danielle Spence and sophomore Quincy Christian.
Understanding why improving week-to-week is so critical is actually rather simple after taking a closer look at Rice's opening portion of the current schedule. Starting off with meets against national powers SMU and Miami on back-to-back weekends would be considered tough enough, but Rice then hosts its third big meet in a row next weekend (Oct. 28-29) with the first-ever five team invitational held at the Competition Pool.
Huston said emotions were high for the season-opener, but equally important meets against more national-caliber opponents are coming up fast.
"Going back-to-back-to-back like that is very uncommon," Huston explained. "I think it is a challenge for us as a team to step-up and race, week-in and week-out, so I like the opportunity.
"Everyone was looking forward to the first meet of the season for a long time. It is these next three weeks, starting with Miami, that are a challenge."
Oct. 22, 2011
Rice vs. Miami Dual Meet
Schedule of events
400 Medley Relay
1,000 Freestyle
200 Freestyle
50 Freestyle
400 Individual Medley
Intermission
200 Butterfly
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
500 Freestyle
Intermission
200 Breaststroke
400 Freestyle Relay
Players Mentioned
