Rice University
C-USA Championship
Madame Butterfly!
2/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Casey Clark broke her own school record to win her third-straight Conference USA individual title in the 100-butterfly to highlight the Owls' third day of action at the league Championships Friday in Knoxville, Tenn.
Clark and the entire Owls team had a solid day of competition Friday, piling up more points in the one session (209) than the squad had done in the first two days of the meet combined (203.5). She had already broken her own school record in the 100-fly last December with a 52.70 in San Antonio. In Friday's morning prelims of the event Clark wiped that off the books with 52.36 to earn the No. 1 seed in the evening finals. That mark didn't last long. In the finals she swam a 51.98 on the way to the C-USA individual title - her third-straight in the event dating back to her sophomore year.
The Spring, Texas, native had some teammates in the 100-fly finals to celebrate with her. Marissa Konicke was fourth overall after a 53.55 in the prelims. Meaghan Wisenbaker was seventh with a 54.54 that is the fifth-fastest in school history.
Rice also had a big day with second place finishes from Rachel Moody and Alicia Caldwell. Both notched new school records on the way to their respective silver medals, with Moody going 1:00.81 in the 100-breasstroke and Caldwell hitting the wall at 53.48 in the 100-backstroke. Madison Livingston (5th 100-BR, 1:02.92) and Kiley Beall (7th 100-BK, 54.71) reached the respective event finals as well.
The Owls piled-up the points with spots 4-5-6-7 in the 400-individual medley. Freshman Kaitlyn Swinney had the fifth-fastest Rice time ever in the event (4:19.56), and she was followed by Owls Lauren FitzGerald (4:20.42), Livingston (4:21.27) and Jaecey Parham (4:23.69).
Senior distance specialist Erin Flanigan dipped down to the 200-freestyle and tallied a career-best 1:48.10 in the morning prelims on the way to a fifth-place finish in the finals. Taylor Armstrong was seventh with a steady 1:48.86.
That was Rice's day through 13 of the 14 events. The Owls had managed to climb into second place and were just 70.5 points behind leader FIU heading into event 14, the 400-medley relay where the team was confident more points were within reach.
The relay, however, was not to be. Rice ended up getting disqualified from the race, resulting in no points and big impact on the team standings.
After Day 3 (including springboard diving that Rice does not compete in), Rice is in third place with a total of 412.5 points. Florida International leads the meet with 517 points while Western Kentucky is second place (444 pts.). Marshall is fourth (330), followed by North Texas (256), Florida Atlantic (230.5) and Old Dominion (197) to round out the remaining seven-team field.
The meet concludes with seven more final events on Saturday.
Players Mentioned
