Tulane vs. SMU (Women Only)
- February 8th, 2019
- Dallas, Texas
- 25y, dual meet format
- Meet Results
- Team Scores: Tulane W 154, SMU W 146
9 event wins, including the opening 200 medley relay (1:43.59) and closing 400 free relay (3:27.61), carried the Tulane women over SMU on Friday in Dallas in both teams’ competitive regular season finale. This marks Tulane’s 2nd-straight victory in the series after having lost in each of the prior two seasons.
“Tonight was really a great meet,” Tulane head coach Leah Stancil said. “The girls swam really well and raced really well. There’s still a few things that we can work on, but I’m pretty happy with how aggressive they competed. They had a mission tonight and they worked really hard to achieve it.”
Tulane sophomore Kate McDonald was the team’s high scorer on the day after sweeping all three of her individual events. She won the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.24, the 200 breaststroke in 2:14.53, and the 200 IM in 2:03.53. That 1:02.24 is a new season-best for her, clearing the 1:02.27 that she swam at the team’s mid-season invite in Houston. It’s within two-tenths of her lifetime best as well. Her challenge now will be to hit her best swims at the AAC Championships: something she was able to achieve in the IM last year, but couldn’t do in either breaststroke race.
Senior Shelly Zelnick joined McDonald with a multi-win day for Tulane as well, winning the 200 free (1:50.28) and 200 back (2:01.52).
SMU was led by junior Erin Trahan, who won all 3 of her individual events as well. She won the 50 free by half-a-second in 23.65; led a 1-2-3 SMU sweep in the 100 free in 51.74; and had an almost two-second edge in the 100 fly in 54.48. Those times are almost spot-on where she was in early February last season when she missed an NCAA invite in the 100 fly by about 4 tenths of a second.
Trahan’s scoring from 3 individual wins was mitigated by the fact that she jumped early on SMU’s 200 medley relay, which had touched the wall first, and cost the Mustangs 9 points on net. They lost the meet by 8.
SMU freshman Johanna Holloway swept diving with career bests on both the 1 meter (276.83) and 3 meter (290.55) springboards.
