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Tracy Dansker

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Craig leads swimmers to third place finish

By Tracy Dansker

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.

NEWS 2/5/09 6:00pm

Swimming downs Houston

By Tracy Dansker

When you face your biggest rival three times during the dual-meet season, the series can turn out four different ways. It can be entirely disheartening because your team repeatedly falls short; ego-boosting because you smash your opponent mercilessly at each meeting; disastrous if your team starts strong and ends in a slump; or amazingly rewarding because your team perseveres until the tables are turned in your favor. It turns out that the final option works best for the swim team. Last weekend, the Owls met the University of Houston for the third time this season. The Cougars took both of the previous contests fairly handily, but this time the Owls had the upper hand, recording 178 points to UH's 169. Along the way, Rice also beat the University of New Orleans 263.5-65.5 and lost to Lousiana State University 246-95.

NEWS 1/22/09 6:00pm

Seniors honored versus SMU in season's only home meet

By Tracy Dansker

The faux wooden wall was painted with an artistic array of owls, the windows were decorated with balloons and the fans were on their feet, cheering and waving signs. Maybe it was because it was the lone home swim meet of the season or maybe it was because it was the last swim meet at Rice pool. But without a doubt, the support and loud atmosphere was due in part to honor the team's graduating seniors who have contributed endless amounts of enthusiasm and talent over the past four years. After this season, Natalie Kirchhoff, Diane Gu, Skylar Craig, Jennifer Hill, Carlyann Miller and Caitlin Warner will trade their Speedos for business suits. With the help of head coach Seth Huston and assistant Jada Hallmark (Sid '01), the underclassmen successfully pulled off a fabulous ceremony for their seniors.

NEWS 12/4/08 6:00pm

Swimming succeeds at Cornhusker Invitational

By Tracy Dansker

The swim team proved head coach Seth Huston right: They showed that they can have unbeatable depth. While they have struggled to win dual meets in the past few months, the Owls had no trouble destroying their competition at the Cornhusker Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska Nov. 20-23. This meet organization was similar to the way the Conference USA Championships will run in February. In the morning the team swam in preliminaries and those with fast enough times made it to the finals the same evening, where they had an opportunity to score points. At the end of each day, Rice came out on top. After competing in 21 events over four days, Rice won the entire meet with 1,200 points, 121 points ahead of runner-up North Texas.

NEWS 11/20/08 6:00pm

Swimming wins three of four dual meets

By Tracy Dansker

Hopefully, the expression holds true: the third time is the charm. The swim team has faced University of Houston twice, but the Owls have yet to claim bragging rights over their cross-town rivals. Their final chance before the Conference USA meet will be in January, when they meet UH in Baton Rouge, La., for the Louisiana Triple Dual Meet. Although the final outcome was the same as it was two weeks ago at the UH Invitational, the Owls were able to significantly narrow the Cougars' margin of victory from 52 points to 27 points this weekend. Rice easily overcame its other competitors, beating Florida International University 239-75, University of the Incarnate Word 260-87 and Vanderbilt 256-80.

NEWS 11/13/08 6:00pm

Swimming falls to University of Houston, New Mexico

By Tracy Dansker

Winston Churchill once said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." After being defeated by four out of the five teams they have competed against this season, this is exactly the attitude the swim team has chosen to maintain, even after falling last weekend to the University of Houston 173-121 and New Mexico State University 151-143. Head coach Seth Huston said he believes in the strength of his team across the board.

NEWS 10/30/08 7:00pm

Swim team falls short in double-dual at Oregon State

By Tracy Dansker

Jet lag makes us all a bit cranky and tired, but most of us plan time into our trips for our bodies and minds to recover. For the swim team, relaxation time was not an option as they traveled to Oregon State University this past weekend. The evening they arrived they dove in headfirst and by the end of Friday's meet, they were trailing 56 points behind the rested Beavers. After a night of sleep, the Owls came back out to face OSU for a second day of competition in an additional eight events. Ultimately, though, OSU took first in 13 out of the 17 events and beat Rice 181-136. Tomorrow, nine Rice swimmers will be traveling to Austin, Tex., to compete in the American Swimming Association Open Water Championships. Last year was the inaugural meet and Rice took home the first place title, clinching five of the top nine spots.

NEWS 10/23/08 7:00pm

New policy provides notivation for swim team

By Tracy Dansker

Head coach Seth Huston has a new policy for his swim team: If a swimmer wants to travel to away meets, she must earn her spot on the roster by showing up to practice and displaying commitment to the team. College swim meets allow each team only 18 entries. This year, Rice has 21 girls eligible to swim. Therefore, at each meet Huston must choose three girls who swim for exhibition only but cannot score points.In the past, Huston has taken the entire team to every meet because it made sense numerically. Now that he has choices available about who swims, Huston intends to use them.

NEWS 10/9/08 7:00pm

Rice Swimming 2008 Preview

By Tracy Dansker

Riding on the wave of many past accomplishments, the swim team enters this season poised to match or even exceed their high performance last season. The Owls finished 10-4 in dual meets and second at the Conference USA Championships last spring for the second consecutive year. The only team they did not overcome was Southern Methodist University, which amassed an impressive 926 points, almost 300 points above Rice's finish. At the national championships on March 22, 2008, Rice finished 39th in the nation. Additionally, senior sprinter Carlyann Miller competed at the 2008 Summer Olympic Trials. One of the team's goals this season is to remain in the top two in the conference and narrow the gap between themselves and SMU.

NEWS 3/27/08 7:00pm

Massengale ends illustrious career with All-America honors

By Tracy Dansker

Walking out onto the pool deck at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion at Ohio State University, without any of her swimming teammates to stand beside her, senior Brittany Massengale was determined to not be intimidated by the bigger squads and their visible fan support. But as Rice's sole NCAA qualifier, Massengale had reason to be nervous.Fortunately for Massengale, one of the most decorated swimmers in Rice history, the butterflies in her stomach could not slow her down on collegiate swimming's biggest stage. After placing 32nd in the 200-yard freestyle preliminaries, she qualified for the championship finals in the 1650 and 500 freestyle, where she placed 12th and 13th, respectively. Her two finishes in the finals were worth a cumulative score of nine points, which put Rice in a tie for 39th place. Massengale is the first Owl to score in two individual events at the national meet since Mandy Mularz (Wiess '04) accomplished this feat at the NCAA Championships in 2002.

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