The defending CCSA Champions from Liberty University hit the road this weekend, travelling to Corvallis, Oregon for a double dual against Oregon State and Seattle, and walked away with a pair of wins on Friday night.
Final scores:
- Liberty 145-Oregon State 112
- Liberty 167-Seattle University 90
- Oregon State 182.5-79.5
The meet was a full individual schedule, with the exception of no diving, no 200 IM, and the 1000 instead of the 1650.
Liberty started off the meet with a statement by going 1-2-3 in the 200 medley relay. The Flames had a breakthrough last season, winning the first conference championship in the program’s relatively short history, but have lost their two NCAA individual qualifiers from last year.
Despite those losses, they’re shooting for another title this year, and so far they’ve got the depth to get there. The team’s A-relay swam a 1:45.21 and included two freshmen on the breaststroke and fly legs. What’s more is that senior Meghan Babcock anchored the winning relay in 23.55, but was only the third-best among the three senior anchors on the team’s A, B, and C relays.
That freestyle depth again carried Liberty to a 1-2 finish (though from exhibitioned teams) in the 400 free relay at the end of the meet, and the team took the 1-4 spots in the 100 free event as well.
That 100 free was led by Kendall Hough, who was a 51.02, with Cori Gary (51.86), Meghan Babcock (52.65), and Chloe Thomas (52.91). That’s one junior and three seniors for this squad, and the combination of veterans and youth shows how good this team is this year.
Hough also won the 100 backstroke in 56.34.
For Oregon State, the star of the day was junior Sammy Harrison. She started her day with a runaway win in the 1000 free in 10:06.26 and later added victory in the 500 free in 4:52.96. Those wins by 12 and 11 seconds, respectively, are both a sign of how good Harrison is, and how relatively weak Liberty is in the distance races. Harrison is the defending Pac 12 Champion in the 1650 free, and will hope to repeat that status in 2015.
The only spot where she got beat was in the 200 free, in which she took 2nd in 1:51.62. That’s roughly the same time as she went at this point last season, but she was beaten-out by a great back-half from Liberty sophomore Heather McCorkel (1:50.22).
For Seattle, the high point was their sophomore Blaise Wittenauer-Lee. She picked up Liberty’s only win of the meet, posting a 1:05.16. That was better than Oregon State’s Czsarina Isleta (1:05.32) and Liberty’s Morgan Noonan (1:05.86).
Wittenauer-Lee also came away 2nd in the 400 IM with a 4:30.28 – placing behind only exhibitioned Emily Duff from Liberty in 4:29.85.
