Swimming Places Third at AAC Championships

In Brief: Rice swimming finished third in the team standings with 593 points at the AAC Swimming & Diving Championships on Sunday in Dallas, Texas. The Owls added two more titles and another broken school record on the final day of competition.

The Details: In the morning preliminaries, senior Mimi Filkin started the day for rice by qualifying for the A final in the 200-yard backstroke. Filkin qualified in third place in the preliminaries, and sophomore Ava Hamblett and senior Briana Gellineau advanced to the consolation final with ninth and 15th-place finishes, respectively. In the 100-yard freestyle, senior Imogen Meers was the lone Owl representative to qualify, finishing second with a time of 49.24, one-hundredth of a second off the all-time record at Rice. In the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Lily Cramer finished seventh to qualify for the A final, while freshmen Siiri Einio and Michaela Koltz placed 10th and 15th, respectively, to qualify for the consolation final. In the final prelim, the Owls qualified three swimmers for the A final of the 200-yard butterfly. Junior Arielle Hayon placed third and seniors Lauren Brantley and Elizabeth Myers placed fourth and seventh, respectively. Freshman Catherine Eland also placed 15th to advance to the consolation final.

In the evening's finals, Rice's distance crew led the way with a sweep of the 1,650-yard freestyle. Junior Ella Dyson finished first for her second straight gold in the event, while junior Amelia Kane and graduate senior Shannon Campbell claimed the remaining podium places.

Rice's final individual title came from Meers in the 100 free. Meers broke the Rice record by nearly half a second, recording a 48.80 for her third individual gold medal of championship weekend.

After winning the 100-yard butterfly on Saturday, Hayon fell just short of sweeping the fly events on Sunday as her comeback on the final leg of the 200 fly fell just short, although the junior did claim second place in the event. Seniors Elizabeth Myers and Lauren Brantley made it three Owls in the top five with respective fourth- and fifth-place finishes.

Rice's final podium finish came in the 200-yard backstroke where Filkin finished third for her second podium of the weekend. In the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Lily Cramer managed a seventh-place finish.

Sophomore Ava Hamblett and freshman Siiri Einio also won the consolation finals for the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard breaststroke, respectively. Freshman Michaela Koltz placed 13th in the consolation finals of the 200-yard breaststroke, and senior Briana Gellineau and freshman Catherine Eland each recorded 15th-place finishes in the consolation finals of the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard butterfly, respectively.

The Owls finished the competition with a total of 15 podium finishes, including six individual titles. In addition to Sunday's titles in the 100- and 1,650-yard freestyles, Rice also recorded victories in the 50 free (Meers), 500 free (Kane), 100 fly (Hayon) and 100 back (Meers). The Owls also recorded another three podium finishes in the 400 free, 800 free and 400 medley relays.

The Owls also rewrote the Rice record books on the weekend, setting new program records in four events: 100 free (Meers), 400 medley relay (Filkin, Einio, Hayon and Meers), 100 fly (Hayon) and 200 IM (Hayon).

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

1.	FIU	778.5
2.	SMU	666
3.	RICE	593
4.	ECU	446
5.	Florida Atlantic	417
6.	Tulane	379
7.	North Texas	336.5

Head coach Seth Huston: "This was the best conference meet for the Owls in years. We did more with less this season and this team grew an awful lot to finish like we did. Imogen Meers put this team on her back. She showed us all how to prepare, how to compete and how to win. I am honored to coach her."

Up Next: Rice swimming is next in action at the Texas A&M Last Chance Meet on Thursday, Feb. 29, through Saturday, March 2, in College Station.

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