Courtesy: North Texas Athletics
SAN ANTONIO – Leigh Faires McGee, Jenny Holwell and Diana Kolb all won a pair of individual events as the North Texas swimming and diving team beat Incarnate Word 167-132 on Friday morning in San Antonio. The win closes out the regular season as the Mean Green will now shift their focus to the 2021 Conference USA Championships.
“It was a great team effort today,” head coach Brittany Roth said. “We had more of our team members able to compete today than in the past couple of meets, so it was nice to get a team win on the board.”
With McGee, Holwell and Kolb all picking up a pair of wins, it brought each of their career individual win totals to new heights. McGee would lead the way by picking up wins in the 100 and 200 free races, pushing her career individual win total to 45. Holwell’s wins in the 100 and 200 breast races brought her career total to three after she picked up her first career win against UIW in 2020. Kolb, a freshman from Lufkin picked up the first two wins of her young career in the 100 and 200 back races.
“I’ve been impressed with Jenny’s effort and development over the last two seasons, and how she’s honing in on her race strategy,” Roth added. “Diana has stepped right into a position we needed from the start of the year, she’s such a hard worker with great ambition and I’m excited for her to get two individual wins on the day.”
The Mean Green got off to a slow start after the Cardinals won the first two events of the day, however second-place finishes in both events set North Texas up to go on a run and take the lead early.
Jordan Gorham (10:48.46) and London Farris (10:55.68) took second and third in the 1000 freestyle right before the Mean Green went on a three-event win streak. McGee started it off with a 1:51.76 in the 200 free, followed by Kolb with a 58.53 in the 100 back and Holwell with a 1:06.70 in the 100 breast. UIW would claim the win in the 200 fly with Karigan Stanley and Tram Nguyen finishing second and third with times of 2:11.17 and 2:14.19 respectively.
“Leigh’s win in the 200 free was just what the team needed to get the momentum for the remaining events in the first half of the meet,” Roth said. “Then to kick off the second half with her second win, the team fed off that swim along with London and Bryanna and that race really set the tone for the team’s remaining events.”
After the UIW win, the Mean Green would win the next five events starting with Micayla Morgan clocking a 24.72 to win the 50 free and Meghan Miller scoring a 260.55 to win the 1-meter dive. McGee would then clock a 52.37 in the 100 free leading a Mean Green sweep in the event with Farris (53.73) and Bryanna Vasquez (54.10) finishing second and third. Kolb would then snag her second win of the day with a 2:07.35 in the 200 back and Holwell would follow her with a 2:27.01 in the 200 breast for her second win.
The Mean Green would end the meet with a win in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:32.35, all-in-all North Texas would snag 29 top-3 finishes on the day in route to the win. The team’s focus will now shift to the 2021 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships to be held in Atlanta, Georgia from February 24-27.
Courtesy: Incarnate Word Athletics
