Swimming nabs two out of three
Still looking for their first win of the year, the swim team went to the University of Houston last weekend to face conference rival Tulane University, No. 24 Louisiana State University and Houston in a two-day meet. Rice (3-4), which had lost to Houston in October, prevailed under pressure to pull off two victories against Tulane (236.5-96.5) and the Cougars (197-144).Though the wins were tempered by a loss to LSU (119-236), the two victories came at the right time for the team to carry over momentum into the conference championship later this month.
"Going two for three is good for a team's morale," Head Coach Seth Huston said. "We've done our best in each meet we compete in and sometimes the score doesn't fall in our favor, but we never quit. As we get ready for the championship we can feed off the motivation we got from these two victories."
The Owls will find all the motivation they need if their top performers maintain their success. The team of seniors Angela Wo and Pam Zelnick, junior Erin Mattson and sophomore Shelby Bottoms combined to post their best time of the season in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.49, beating second-place Houston by almost 3.5 seconds. The same relay crew later clocked a season-best 3:28.77 in the 4x100 yard freestyle.
Zelnick had a very strong performance in the two-day event, earning her Conference USA Swimmer of the Week honors. The senior finished second in the 50-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 23.66, and also third with a season-best 2:22.05 in the 200-yard breaststroke. In the 100-yard breaststroke, she finished first with a season-best time of 1:04.41 and nearly beat her career-best 51.30 in the 100-yard freestyle with a season best of 51.92.
Zelnick explained she swam comfortably in each of her events.
"After our performance last week and the two upsetting losses, I felt that we had something to prove not only to our fans but to ourselves, and I felt very confident in each event," Zelnick said.
With the C-USA Championship coming up at the end of the month, some swimmers felt this is just what a team coming off a two-meet slump needed.
"We are a good team," Zelnick said. "We showed that we can compete with nationally ranked teams. We started this year off sort of slow, but we are picking up speed at the right time right before the championship meet."
Huston also said he was pleased with the team's effort.
"We fought and competed in every race," Huston said. "I am absolutely convinced we are headed in the right direction.
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