Rice University
CSCAA National Invitational
Owls Finish Second At National Invitational
3/10/2018 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Rice swim team saved its best finish of the final round of action at the CSCAA National Invitational for the final event, taking second in the 400-freestyle relay to wrap-up the three-day meet in second place in the team standings Saturday night in Annapolis, Md.
A total of eleven Owls finished the swim portion of the meet in second place in the team standings with 483 points. (There were still diving events to be held later in the Invitational.) Conference USA rival FIU, the 2018 league champion, won the swim meet with 598.5 points. The University of Denver finished third (428 points) while SEC foe South Carolina was fourth (394 pts.). A total of 31 Division I schools scored at the meet.
"Great meet for Rice Swimming on the national stage," said Owl head coach Seth Huston, now a meet closer to completing his 16th season at the helm of the program. "Our girls not only had a great time at the event, but came in confident and really raced all weekend.
"Kaitlyn Swinney finished of her career with three best times, two championships and she broke her school record 400-IM," Huston added. "Our seniors had an incredible weekend. I was so proud of how they came to the meet and arguably performed at their highest level of their careers."
Three of the seniors (Alicia Caldwell, Jaecey Parham and Lauren Rhodes) and one freshman (Lindsay Mathys) logged a solid time of 3:20.05 to take second place overall in the 400-free relay. It was Rice's highest placing on the final day, but the Blue Gray had plenty to events to mine for points.
Swinney finished third (56.12), Parham was fourth (56.27) and freshman Brittany Bui was eighth (57.06) in the 100-IM. Senior Kiley Beall, a Maryland naive, taking fourth in the finals of the 200-backstroke with a season-best time of 1:58.04. Freshman Ellery Parish was sixth overall with a 1:59.26.
Both Mathys (1:58.92) and Bui (1:59.42) had improved marks to finish fourth, and win the consolation final of the 200-yard butterfly, respectively. Rhodes (50.03) and Caldwell (50.15) also improved to fifth and sixth, respectively, in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle.
Junior distance specialist Hanna Huston was fifth in the mile with a time of 16:40.35. Owl Freshmen Nicole Limberg (2:15.24) was sixth, and Caily Renken (2:15.91) was tenth, in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The Rice swim team's 2018 is still not completely finished, however. Junior Marie-Claire Schillinger competes as an individual in two events at NCAA Championships next week in Columbus, Ohio.
Players Mentioned
