FIU Notches Three Wins at Rice’s Dual-A-Pool-Ooza

Alesha Breckon
by Alesha Breckon 0

October 16th, 2016 News

Dual-A-Pool-Ooza

Dual Meet Format

Host: Rice University; Houston, Tx

Session 1: Friday October 14th, 4pm- Complete Results

Denver 123.5, Rice 97.5

FIU 142, Tulane 82

Session 2: Saturday October 15th; 10 am- Complete Results

FIU 104, Rice 98

Denver 116, Tulane 88

Session 3: Saturday October 15th; 3pm- Complete Results 

Rice 113.5, Tulane 85.5

FIU 119.5, Denver 85.5

This weekend Rice University hosted their annual Dual-A-Pool-Ooza, in which four teams face off in three dual meets in back to back sessions. Each meet is scored individually and this weekend’s clear victors was the Florida International University Panthers. The defending Conference USA Champions took down Tulane, Rice , and Denver- notching three W’s for their season so far this year. The team with the next best record was Denver, who won against Rice on Friday and Tulane at Saturdays morning session.

Look for the Rice Owls return to action on the road on the 28th against North Texas. Tulane will return to Texas on November 4th to take on SMU. Denver takes on Colorado State on the 22nd, and FIU will take on Nova Southeastern and Indian River State on the 21st.

Press Release: Rice- Day 1

HOUSTON — Junior Jaecey Parham won a pair of individual events and swam the anchor leg on a winning Rice relay, but the University of Denver recorded a 123.5 — 97.5 dual meet win over the Owls’ swim team Friday evening in Houston.

Defending Summit League champion Denver was particularly strong winning seven of the meet’s 11 swim events, and breaking two Competition Pool records in the process, but the Owls also posted steady races all the way through. After winning the 100-yard butterfly with a season-best time of 56.06, Parham then swam a 2:04.87 to lead a 1-2 Rice finish in the 200-individual medley with Kaitlyn Swinney (2:05.26). Parham then swam the anchor leg of the Owls’ winning 100-freestyle relay, holding-off a Pioneer charge at the end by .07 seconds.

Rice and Denver also shared first place in one event. Owl senior Shelbi Ragsdale was a late entry in the 50-yard freestyle, but blazed to a career-best 23.97 to share first place with Denver’s Morgan Wice-Roslin. By sharing a win in the 50-free and winning the 4×25 relay the Blue & Gray are making a statement that the team’s sprinters are making strides.

At the end of the meet sixteen of the Denver’s 26-point margin was scored from diving events which the Owls do not compete. Rice head coach Seth Huston talks about Rice’s performance Friday in a video at the above link.

The Owl swimmers have another full day of action ahead on Saturday. Rice competes against defending C-USA champion FIU at 10 am, followed by a third dual meet of the weekend against longtime rival Tulane at 3 pm.

Press Release: Rice- Day 2

The Rice swim team split its two dual meets on the final day of action at the 2016 Dual-A-Pool-Ooza on Saturday (Oct. 15).

After the Owls were edged by .26-hundredths of a second on the final leg of the final relay to fall to Conference USA rival FIU by a score of 104-98, Rice bounced back to defeat longtime regional rival Tulane 113.5 to 85.5.

Rice head coach Seth Huston, now in his 15th season at the helm of the Owl program, comments about the day’s action in the above video. A full listing of the results are provided at the above links.

In the morning session’s head-to-head clash against FIU, Rice juniors Kiley Beall and Lauren Rhodes posted wins in the 200-butterfly (2:06.76) and 100-freestyle (52.05), respectively. Sophomore Marie-Claire Schillinger had the best 100-breaststroke (1:03.71) of any competitor, including swimmers in the simultaneous dual meets between Denver and Tulane. It was the same for junior Kaitlin Swinney in the 400-IM (4:24.23), who had the best mark of the day while leading a 1-2-3 Owl finish against FIU.

Even with FIU pulling-in 16 uncontested points from diving events (which Rice does not compete in), the Owls still held a narrow 94-91 edge heading into the final 200-freestyle relay. The winner of the relay would win the meet.

The Panthers pulled out to a lead through the first half of the event, but a sensational third leg from Rhodes gave the Owls the slimmest of leads. FIU rallied over the final 50-yards to win the race, 1:34.78 to the Owls’ 1:35.04. The winning time was in fact the second-fastest mark in the history of the Competition Pool, and just .01 from the event record (1:34.77) set six years ago.

Rice bounced back with the dual meet win over Tulane in the afternoon session. Schillinger had the best 50-yard breaststroke (29.29) of any competitor on the day and also won the 200-breaststroke (2:20.84) going head-to-head with the Green Wave. Alicia Caldwellwas sensational with the day’s best 200-freestyle (1:50.43) and posting an eye-opening 50.98 while leading off the first leg of the Owls’ 400-free relay.

Jaecey Parham led a 1-2-3 Rice finish over Tulane in the somewhat less traditional 100-individual medley (58.52). Other head-to-head winners over Tulane were Rhodes in the 50-free (23.98) and Claire Therien in the 1000 (10:13.97).

AB

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About Alesha Breckon

Alesha Breckon

Alesha (Olesen) Breckon began her swimming career when her parents put a pool in the back yard. They enrolled Alesha and her brother in the local summer league in an effort to make sure they were "water safe." At the end of the summer, she joined Blue Tide Aquatics in …

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