Owls Wrap A Record-Setting Week of Action

Saturday, February 26

Lynchburg, Virginia

5 PM

Rice University

Conference USA Championship

2/26/2022 9:51:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Six swimmers nab seven gold medals

By: By Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

In Brief: Freshman Arielle Hayon took sole possession of the Rice butterfly record book while Shannon Campbell and Madison Howe gave Rice a record haul of individual gold medals to highlight the final night of competition in the 2022 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday.

Rice captured seven individual events, with Hayon winning a pair and Campbell, Marta Cano-Minarro, Howe, Amelia Kane and Zoe Spitz each reaching the top of the podium once over the four days of competition. Rice had never produced more than four individual winners, while the seven gold medals in individual events was one more than they tallied in 2014.

The Details: Campbell opened the night by giving the Owls their ninth win in the 1650 freestyle overall and third consecutive, hitting the wall in 16:43.17. She was followed by Kane (2^nd in 16:50.86) Sydney Morgan (4^th, 17:01.26) and Virginie Qian (5^th, 17:06.92). Howe gave the Owls their first win in the 100 free, hitting the wall in 49.63 while Becca Evans was 4^th in50.14 and Lauren McDougall 5^th in 50.41. Hayon powered her way to the wall in 1:57.13, knocking nearly 2 ½ seconds off her personal best and breaking the Rice record of 1:57.28 in 2013. She is the first Owl to sweep the butterfly events since Clark in 2014. Cano Minarro was third in 1:59.22, Morgan 6^th in 2:02.05 and Shannon Jelley was 9^th in 2:04.24. The Owls closed out the record-setting night when Howe, McDougall, Evans Cano Minarro set a school record of 3:18.95 on their way to a silver medal in the 400 freestyle.
Final Standings: 1. FIU 1131.5, 2. Rice 998.5, 3. Marshall 600, 4. North Texas 513, 5. FAU 523 6. ODU 358

Seth Huston:" Great overall team meet! Our girls brought a lot of confidence into the meet and just competed phenomenally and we're not done yet. I am looking forward to the post-season meets."

Up Next: The Owls will shift their focus towards the CSCAA National Invitational which gets underway on March 10 in Elkhart, Indiana.