Rice University
Florida Gulf Coast
Caldwell Wins Two Events Sunday at No. 29 Ranked FGCU
1/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
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FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Sophomore Alicia Caldwell won a pair of events in the Rice swim team's return to action Sunday afternoon at No. 29 ranked Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla.
Caldwell posted both of the Owls' individual event wins against a Florida Gulf Coast squad that is ranked among the Top 30 teams in the nation by CollegeSwimming.com. FGCU meanwhile pushed its undefeated dual meet record to 8-0 with a 134-71 win over Rice Sunday in the Owls' return to competition after the Holiday break.
The meet may have been Rice's first competition of the New Year, but it was Caldwell's first for the Owls in the better part of a month. The standout from Sydney, Australia, sat out the team's previous meet as the Blue & Gray coasted to an easy victory at the UIW Invitational two weeks ago in San Antonio. She was back in the lineup Sunday against the No. 29 Eagles and posted a pair of individual wins.
After swimming the lead leg of Rice's 200-medley relay that began the meet with a second place finish, Caldwell returned two events later to post a come-from-behind victory in the 200-freestyle. She was in fact in third place at the halfway point before rallying for a winning time of 1:52.26. Caldwell had even less margin for error later in the meet's 100-free, but again rallied from behind for a winning time of 51.71 that edged second place by a narrow 9 one-hundredths-of-a-second.
Rice true freshman Hanna Huston registered two second place finishes in the rugged distance events with a 5:03.36 in the 500 and a 10:13.53 in the 1,000. Fellow freshman Marie-Claire Schillinger was second in the 100-breaststroke (1:04.68) with junior Shelbi Ragsdale touching in third place at 1:05.58. Sophomore Kaitlyn Swinney placed second in the 200-individual medley 2:06.55.
The Rice swimmers are next in action at UIW on January 12. The Owls also are scheduled to compete at the Texas Grand Prix meet in Austin on Jan. 14-16. (Complete meet results vs. FGCU are available at the above link.)
Players Mentioned
