Craig leads swimmers to third place finish
The swim team may have finished the regular season with a few more losses than last year, but that did not stop the Owls from making their mark at the Conference USA Championships. Rice finished the meet, held from Feb. 25-28, in third place with a total score of 595. Rice fell to Southern Methodist University (857.5) and crosstown rival University of Houston (623) Although they had come in second place at the C-USA Championships the past two years, the women were not upset with their third-place finish.
"I don't think anybody on the team is disappointed with the third-place finish at all," sophomore Kait Chura said. "I think that we're looking forward to next year."
The Owls produced some excellent swims - some of the best in Rice history, in fact. Over the four days of competition, they set seven new school records. On the first day of competition Rice started out strong, finishing in third place in the 200-yard medley relay. Seniors Skylar Craig and Carlyann Miller and juniors Angela Wo and Pam Zelnick broke the school record with a time of 1:41.98.
Following their superb swim, senior Caitlin Warner, sophomore Erin Mattson and freshmen Nicole Delaloye and Shelby Bottoms broke the 800-yard freestyle relay school record. Their time of 7:18.01 not only got them a second-place finish but also a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Championships.
Mattson's leg of the race was the second-fastest 200-yard freestyle in school history, earning her an NCAA provisional qualifying time.
"Last year we broke six [records] maybe, but Brittany Massengale (Sid Richardson '07) was part of five of them," head coach Seth Huston said. "This was more team, effort-wise. A lot of names on the record board are going to be different."
On the second day, Rice came back to break two more school records. Craig, Zelnick, Wo and Miller reunited to break the 400-yard medley relay school record with a time of 3:41.91 and snatch third place. Simultaneously, Craig set a new school record of 55.53 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke as the leading leg of the relay.
Beyond the record-breaking events, swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard individual medley and the 50-yard freestyle worked hard to post points for Rice. In the 500-yard freestyle the Owls had a slew of great finishes: sophomore Karen Gerken in fifth, freshmen Alex O'Brien in sixth, Delaloye in seventh and Warner in ninth. Bottoms took fifth in the 200-yard individual medley followed by Chura in 10th and freshman Alison Godbe in 12th.
Lastly, Miller, Mattson and Zelnick went 5-7-8 in the 50-yard freestyle, and senior Diane Gu rounded out the top Rice finishers in ninth place.
Day three of competition did not see any new school records, but the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Zelnick, Craig, Mattson and Miller did provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championship meet and took second place with a time of 1:31.87. Craig and Mattson also had two great swims in the 100-yard butterfly, posting two of the fastest times in Rice history.
Bottoms returned for the 400-yard individual medley and finished in fourth place. Behind her were teammates O'Brien and Chura in fifth and sixth, respectively. Warner and Miller scored in the 200-yard freestyle, as did Craig in the 100-yard backstroke. Zelnick took seventh place in the 100-yard breaststroke in one of the fastest times in Rice history.
"Maybe where we miscalculated a little bit is that there are eight teams in our conference now and it's a lot deeper meet," Huston said. "Unfortunately, we were ending up in a lot of 10, 11 and 12 spots, which don't score as many points . and probably ultimately hurt us and kept us from achieving second."
Rice ended day four in third place but only after breaking three more school records. Craig took second place in the 200-yard backstroke, setting a new school record at 1:59.41. Bottoms and junior Justine Lin also scored crucial points in this event. Mattson snatched second place in the 200-yard butterfly, setting a new school record with a time of 1:58.94 and provisionally qualifying for the NCAA meet. She is the first Rice woman to swim sub-two minutes in the 200-yard butterfly.
The Owls dominated the mile swim where Warner finished in third with one of Rice's fastest times in history at 16:45.93. Meanwhile, Gerken finished fourth, Delaloye was fifth, O'Brien was seventh and Korellis was eighth.
Mattson, Zelnick, Miller and Craig broke the seventh and final school record of this season in the 400-yard freestyle relay. They came in second with a time of 3:21.66 and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships.
"Even the last night when we were kind of out of it [the running for second place] we had one of our best sessions, maybe the best session, and that was a great way to finish," Huston said. "We got up there and raced and nobody hung their head down.
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