Wednesday, February 23
Lynchburg, Virginia
4 PM
Rice University
vs
Conference USA Championship
Quest for C-USA Gold Begins Wednesday
2/22/2022 6:25:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
C-USA Swimming & Diving Championship
The Rice women's swimming team will be chasing a familiar goal in a new setting when the 2022 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships begin on Wednesday.
The Owls are one of six teams who have gathered in Lynchburg, Virginia for the annual competition which gets underway on Wednesday. The event had been held at the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center for the past six years and seven of the last eight before moving to the home facility of Liberty University this year.
The competition opens with a light schedule on Wednesday with a pair of relays, the 200 medley and 800 freestyle, before the action picks up in earnest on Thursday through Saturday. Fans can watch the finals each night on C-USA TV at no charge. There is no coverage of the morning preliminary swims. Day One / Day Two / Day Three / Day Four
As has been the case for the past eight years, the team race looks to come down to a battle between Rice and FIU. Rice won its third team title in 2014, while the Panthers have taken home the top spot the last seven years.
Rice head coach Seth Huston said his team has grown over the course of the season and he's looking forward to seeing their hard work pay off.
"We're ready to go. When I think about some of our teams in the past, I feel like this team is in a really good place in terms of their energy and the cohesiveness we have as a group. When those things line up really well, fast swimming is usually the by-product."
A look at the fastest times recorded in the conference this year shows a heavy dose of swimmers from Rice and FIU, but Huston noted those combined results can be a bit deceiving. The trick for the coaches is to utilize the limited opportunities each swimmer has to compete to maximize the point potential for the team.
"You can only swim three events so looking at the top times list doesn't give you a true picture. You have to take your best guess as to where people will swim and what that does to the event if some of the top performers don't swim that event. There are some of the events where we might have seven of the top times, but we're not swimming seven people in that race," he noted.
"I'm always searching for ways to maximize our point potential and if that means somebody swims an event that might not be their absolute best but it will help the team more, we do it. We're pretty balanced across the lineup. We should score competitively in almost every event we're in, which we need to because we can't compete in three of the events," he added.
Rice returns a pair of individual champions from last year. Junior Madison Howe has won the last two conference titles in the 100 fly while sophomore Imogen Meers is the defending champion in the 100 backstroke. Senior Marta Cano-Minarro won a pair of individual events and added a win in a relay two years ago on her way to sharing C-USA Swimmer of the Year honors and is looking to cap her career with a haul of more C-USA gold.
Last year, Rice scored its highest point total (905.5) than it had since the Owls scored 1,000 in winning the 2014 team title.
While the Owls will be poised to strike for points in every swimming event, the challenge to overcome the haul of points FIU will reap in the diving competition means the Owls will need some additional twists of fate to capture another team title.
"We're usually deeper than FIU in the pool, but with all the fifth years they have this time, that might not be the case. Because there is diving each day, it's almost impossible for us to make up those points in other events. Baring them being pretty flat or having someone get sick, they would have to be the favorites, but I can't wait to see our team compete," Huston stated.
The Owls are one of six teams who have gathered in Lynchburg, Virginia for the annual competition which gets underway on Wednesday. The event had been held at the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center for the past six years and seven of the last eight before moving to the home facility of Liberty University this year.
The competition opens with a light schedule on Wednesday with a pair of relays, the 200 medley and 800 freestyle, before the action picks up in earnest on Thursday through Saturday. Fans can watch the finals each night on C-USA TV at no charge. There is no coverage of the morning preliminary swims. Day One / Day Two / Day Three / Day Four
As has been the case for the past eight years, the team race looks to come down to a battle between Rice and FIU. Rice won its third team title in 2014, while the Panthers have taken home the top spot the last seven years.
Rice head coach Seth Huston said his team has grown over the course of the season and he's looking forward to seeing their hard work pay off.
"We're ready to go. When I think about some of our teams in the past, I feel like this team is in a really good place in terms of their energy and the cohesiveness we have as a group. When those things line up really well, fast swimming is usually the by-product."
A look at the fastest times recorded in the conference this year shows a heavy dose of swimmers from Rice and FIU, but Huston noted those combined results can be a bit deceiving. The trick for the coaches is to utilize the limited opportunities each swimmer has to compete to maximize the point potential for the team.
"You can only swim three events so looking at the top times list doesn't give you a true picture. You have to take your best guess as to where people will swim and what that does to the event if some of the top performers don't swim that event. There are some of the events where we might have seven of the top times, but we're not swimming seven people in that race," he noted.
"I'm always searching for ways to maximize our point potential and if that means somebody swims an event that might not be their absolute best but it will help the team more, we do it. We're pretty balanced across the lineup. We should score competitively in almost every event we're in, which we need to because we can't compete in three of the events," he added.
Rice returns a pair of individual champions from last year. Junior Madison Howe has won the last two conference titles in the 100 fly while sophomore Imogen Meers is the defending champion in the 100 backstroke. Senior Marta Cano-Minarro won a pair of individual events and added a win in a relay two years ago on her way to sharing C-USA Swimmer of the Year honors and is looking to cap her career with a haul of more C-USA gold.
Last year, Rice scored its highest point total (905.5) than it had since the Owls scored 1,000 in winning the 2014 team title.
While the Owls will be poised to strike for points in every swimming event, the challenge to overcome the haul of points FIU will reap in the diving competition means the Owls will need some additional twists of fate to capture another team title.
"We're usually deeper than FIU in the pool, but with all the fifth years they have this time, that might not be the case. Because there is diving each day, it's almost impossible for us to make up those points in other events. Baring them being pretty flat or having someone get sick, they would have to be the favorites, but I can't wait to see our team compete," Huston stated.
Players Mentioned
Free/IM
/ Swimming & Diving
Sprints
/ Swimming & Diving
Back/Free
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