Meet Facts: Rice vs. North Texas
- Complete Results
- Host: North Texas
- Friday; October 28th, 2016
- 25 Yards
- Dual Meet Format
- Women: Rice 155.5, North Texas 138.5
The North Texas Mean Green played host to the Rice Owls on Friday, October 28th in the first of two home dual meets this weekend. The Conference USA foes traded wins throughout the meet, with Rice ultimately notching a W at the end of the meet. The Mean Green started the meet a win in the 400 Medley Relay with the team of Jowita Siencyk, Sarah Vaisse, Kelsey Opiela, and Emmabeth Jensen– edging the Owls out by 1.33 seconds. The Mean Green also had strong individual performances from event winners Isabelle Morris– 200 Free, Sarah Vaisse – 100 breast, Haley Timmons – 200 fly, and Emmabeth Jensen- 50 free.
The Owls had a strong showing throughout the meet, putting up mutliple scorers in each of the events they competed in (North Texas swept the diving events since Rice does not have a diving team). Sydney Franzen took first,in the 1000 Free, finishing with a five second lead over the rest of the field. She was followed by teammates Rylee Linhardt and Anniina Ala-Seppala to round out the top 3. Rice also went 1-2-3 in the 500 free (Hanna Huston, Sarah Nowaski, Anniina Ala-Seppala). The Owls closed the meet with a win in the 200 free relay with the team of Shelbi Ragsdale, Harper Gillentine, Lauren Rhodes, and Alicia Caldwell. Caldwell also took home an individual win in the 100 free. Other key event winners for the Owls included Marie-Claire Schillinger in the 200 Breast and Kiley Beall in the 100 fly.
Both teams return to competition on Saturday, when North Texas hosts the Univeristy of Houston and Rice heads to Dallas to take on Southern Methodist.
North Texas Press Release:
DENTON – The North Texas swimming and diving team fell to Rice 155.5 to 138.5 in a dual meet on Friday afternoon at the Pohl Recreation Center, marking its first head-to-head loss of the season.
“We know that Rice is a huge force in Conference USA,” interim head coach Brittany Roth said. “The message we have been telling our girls all week is that you stand up and don’t back down to the challenge. I am so proud of how they swam today. They didn’t back down and when things didn’t go their way, they stood back up and went after it.”
The Mean Green secured seven first-place finishes, including the 400 medley relay, comprised of Jowita Sienczyk, Sarah Vaisse, Kelsey Opiela and Emma Beth Jensen, with a time on 3:50.80.
Vaisse wasn’t finished though, and she would claim another victory in the 100 breaststroke with a season-best time of 1:03.47.
Jensen would also go on to claim an individual victory in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.97.
Isabelle Morris secured another top finish for the Mean Green, with a season-best time of 1:52.04 in the 200 freestyle.
Freshman Haley Timmons’ season-best time of 2:07.92 in the 200-yard butterfly secured her first individual collegiate victory.
“We want to look at the results and celebrate the highs and take a look at how we did it, so we can do it better our next time out,” added Roth. “That is our goal every time we go out to swim is how we can do it better next time.”
On the diving side, Averie Ruiz and Allison Crites logged season highs on the one-meter board. Ruiz posted a score of 232.88 and Crites logged a score of 223.73, respectively. Ruiz also claimed the top spot on the three-meter board with a score of 217.88.
Quick Hits
• The North Texas 200 freestyle relay time comprised of Morris, Jensen, Vaisse, and Courtney Connelly finished second with a time of 1:35.90, .05 seconds slower than Rice’s relay team
• Rice entered the week ranked as the No. 30 team in college swimming
Up Next For North Texas :The Mean Green will return to the pool to face Houston on Saturday at noon at the Pohl Recreation Center. Diving will be held at PEB.
Rice Press Release:
The Rice duo of Kiley Beall and Jaecey Parham both won individual events, part nine Owl wins in a 14-event swim program, for a hard-fought come-from-behind Conference USA dual meet victory at North Texas Friday in Denton.
Parham swept won the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.76) and led a 1-2 Rice finish with Rylee Linhardt in the 200-backstroke with times of 2:04.26 and 2:05.25, respectively. Bell led a 1-2 Rice finish in the 100-butterfly (56.67) with Shelbi Ragsdale (57.92), as well as a 1-2-3 Owl sweep of the 100-backstoke (57.39).
Blue & Gray posted three 1-2-3 finishes on the day, but Rice was without the 32 points for diving events (in which the Owls do not compete). Head coach Seth Huston said Rice needed all the swim points it could muster against a North Texas team that was equally hungry for a C-USA victory.
“We won a close one,” said coach Huston. “As expected North Texas was ready to go and swam a great meet.”
“We were a little sluggish through the first break,” Huston explained. “We were down by five before diving, so really 37 points in all. Our backs were against the wall, but we really stepped-up and got back in the meet. We had a three-point lead going into the IM.
“I was really proud of how the team didn’t quit” he said. “Not only did we need to win events, we needed depth points (from other finishers in each race). We had big swims from Jaecey in the 200-back and 200-IM, and Sydney Franzen winning the 1000-freestyle and earning a fifth in the butterfly. That alone was a two-point swing.
“Marie-Claire Schillinger and Hanna Huston were part of our comeback by winning the 200-breaststroke (2:17.57) and 500-freestyle (5:00.53),” coach Huston added. “Alicia Caldwell won the 100-free and then came from behind swimming as the anchor leg on the sprint relay to win by .05. It was a total team effort.”
The Rice swimmers continue the weekend road swing on Saturday in the Metroplex. The Owls take on longtime rival SMU at 1 pm. The meet will be held at Southlake High School.
