In a battle of two programs trending in the right direction, the TCU Horned Frogs women topped North Texas 168-130 on Friday night at the TCU University Rec Center Natatorium. That score was impacted by TCU exhibitions in the last event of the day, the 400 free relay.
The TCU women, ignoring that exhibition, swept the relays, starting with a 1:45.72 on the 200 medley relay, and finishing with a 3:30.67 in the 400 free relay.
Junior Carley Stevens had a breakout meet for TCU and earned her first win of the season as part of the Horned Frog effort. She swam a 10:23.24 in the 1000 free, which is the team’s best time this season from any swimmer.
She later earned her second win of the meet, and season, as she tipped North Texas’ Jessica Rodriguez at the wall by a margin of 5:07.53-5:07.95. Stevens built a huge lead by the halfway mark of that 500. She was more than three seconds ahead of Rodriguez when their feet hit at the 250 yard mark, though at that point, North Texas’ Basia Wasilweska (5:09.69 finish) was still in the battle.
The move from Rodriguez wasn’t a gradual one, rather she exploded with a 28.58 on the final 50. That was faster than Rodriguez was on any other 50 of the entire swim, including the opening one.
Ultimately, though, even that kick wasn’t enough, as Stevens held on for victory.
North Texas’ loss was despite an impressive effort from senior Krista Rossum, who earned three of UNT’s seven event victories. After swimming in the medley relay, she started her individual swims with a win in the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.70, with a strong back-half performance.
Then in the 200 breaststroke, Rossum was dominant en route to nearly a six-second margin of victory with a 2:18.82. That’s a touch slower than she was against Tulane last weekend (2:18.41), but is still miles ahead of where she was on this same timing last season (where she was swimming 1:08’s and 2:24’s in January).
Rossum finished the day with a 4:27.55 in the 400 IM, where she battled with TCU’s Ali Bleasdell. This was a tale of two swims, as Bleasdell is very much a front-half IM’er, whereas Rossum’s best swimming comes on the back side.
Predictably, Bleasdell opened up a two-second lead after the backstroke, but within 30 yards, that lead was all-but-erased, and the race belonged to Rossum from there.
Bleasdell would finish 2nd in 4:34.43. She had a good meet overall, including a win in the 200 fly in 2:04.57.
The TCU women move to 7-3 before a battle next Friday, in Austin, against the #5 Texas Longhorns. UNT has one big matchup left with the SMU Mustangs on the same day at home.
