2021 Rice Fall Splash
- October 15-16, 2021
- Rice Competition Pool, Houston, Texas
- Results
- Score: Houston 191, Rice 143
The Houston women won 11 of 18 events en route to a 191-143 victory over the Rice Owls at the 2021 Rice Fall Splash, the Cougars’ first win under new head coach Tanica Jamison.
“Allan (McCallum) and I are very pleased with our performances this weekend. We want to see progress at each dual meet and that’s exactly what we saw,” Jamison said post-meet. “I look forward to the next few weeks of training before we compete against Arkansas at the end of the month.
“We will use the next few weeks to continue our progress in training and clean up some of the small details before Phill Hansel.”
Leading the charge for Houston was freshman Mary Catherine Jurica, who picked up three individual event wins in the 200 free (1:51.84), 500 free (4:59.16) and 1000 free (10:09.80). Jurica, who is from the Houston area and previously swam for the Houston Swim Club, owns best times of 1:48.82, 4:51.98 and 10:02.46 in those three events.
Also picking up multiple wins for the Cougars was Spanish sophomore Laura Garcia Marin, sweeping the 200 IM (2:06.20) and 400 IM (4:51.88) while also finishing as the runner-up to Rice’s Arielle Hayon (2:04.56) in the 200 fly.
Hayon, an 18-year-old freshman, also won the 100 fly (55.12), and her swim in the 200 marked a new personal best.
Also winning two events for the Owls was junior Zoe Spitz, who swept the 100 (55.92) and 200 back (2:01.96).
The two teams split the relays, with Houston prevailing in the 400 medley to open the meet on Friday and the 400 free to finish things off on Saturday, while Rice claimed the 200 free and 200 medley relays at the conclusion of Day 1 and the beginning of Day 2, respectively.
The sprint free also saw a pair of great battles, with Rice’s Lauren McDougall (51.18) edging Houston’s Katie Power (51.27) and Keely Rollinson (51.31) in the 100 free on Friday, and then Power (24.13) came back with a .01 50 free victory over Rice’s Becca Evans (24.14) and Maddy Howe (24.27) on Saturday. Power was also a fixture on all four of Houston’s ‘A’ relays.
After opening its season by hosting Texas A&M on Oct. 7, will travel to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks on Oct. 30, while Rice will have a Blue-Gray intrasquad on Oct. 29 before the two teams converge at the Phill Hansel Invitational Nov. 18-20.
