The Lady Cougars of Houston have yet to win a swimming event, but some fantastic performances from their divers have the host team up half a point over Rice going into the final day at the C-USA Championships. The SMU Men lost the lead at one point on night 3 but bounced back with a big night on the boards and a monster relay performance to regain the lead going into the final day.
For the 2nd night in a row the Western Kentucky University Men opened up with two wins in the first two events. Sophomore Loui Little took the Men’s 400 IM title in 3:50.52 and junior Heitor Rodrigues, who was the runner up in the 50 free on night 2, finished first in the Men’s 100 Fly in a meet record of :46.91. The Hilltoppers jumped out to a 40 point lead over SMU after their opening victories.
The ladies from Rice also opened up with two wins in the first 2 events. Junior Quincy Christian took the Women’s 400 IM in 4:16.45 and her sophomore teammate Casey Clark took the Women’s 100 Butterfly in :53.20. In both events the Owls took third place points as well with freshman Shelbi Ragsdale touching third in the IM in 4:18.78 and sophomore Marissa Konicke taking the bronze in the 100 fly in :54.50. After the first two events Rice had a 32 point lead on the Cougars of Houston.
On Night number 2 the Houston diving trio of Julia Lonnegren, Natasha Burgess, and Danielle Shedd took 1-2-3 in that order on the 3 meter and on night number 3 the only difference was the order. Burgess took the win on the 1 meter while Lonnegren finished 2nd and Shedd took another third place podium position.
The Women of SMU are still in the mix and junior Nina Rangelova is a big reason why. She lead off the victorious 800 free relay on night 1, won the 500 free and anchored the winning 200 free relay on night number 2, and tonight took the the win in the Women’s 200 Freestyle in 1:46.23 and was on anchor duty again for the winning 400 Medley Relay.
The Mustangs also took the Men’s 200 Freestyle with junior Matt Roney, who was the runner up in the 500 on night 2, setting a new meet record en route to victory with a 1:36.36. Despite taking that top spot in the heat, WKU still added to their lead with 4 swimmers in that A final, lead by 2nd place finisher Adam Dajka who clocked a 1:37.17.
It almost looked to be getting out of hand in the Men’s 100 Breaststroke where the Hilltoppers went for the 1-2-3 knockout punch. Billy Kunkel (the runner up in the 200 IM on night 2) lead the way for WKU with a :54.08, followed by classmate Luke Musser (not to be confused with the younger Musser, Seth who won that 200 IM on night 2) clocking a :54.13, and Connor (no relation to the US Olympian?) Dwyer finishing third with a :54.40. The Mustangs looked to be down for the count with WKU taking an 89.5 point lead, but SMU would rally back in the last 3 events…
They began their comeback in the Men’s 100 Backstroke where Matas Andriekus and 50 free champ Mindaugas Saudaskas tied for the win in :47.41. Seth Musser took third for WKU with a :47.84.
The Lady Mustangs took the Women’s 100 Backstroke with 50 Freestyle champ Isabella Arcilla winning her second individual title in a time of :52.69.
The SMU Men carried their into a 1-2 finish on the 3 Meter with Devin Burnett taking the win and Hayden Hodges finishing 2nd. But the exclamation point came in the final event of the evening where SMU set a new meet record in route to an NCAA A cut in the Men’s 400 Medley Relay. Matas Andiekus lead them off with a :48.09 back split, Nicholai Hansen followed that up with a :53.34 split on the breast, David Larson clocked a :45.95 in the fly, and Mindaugas Sakauskas finished it off with a blazing :42.16. Their overall time of 3:09.54 obliderated the meet record and stamped their ticket to Indianapolis next month.
SMU also took the win in the Women’s 400 Medley Relay in 3:55.88 with Rice touching 2nd in 3:41.86 and Houston rounding out the top 3 with a 3:43.93.
After the dust settled it was SMU with the 12.5 point lead over WKU in the mens race and Houston with a .5 lead over Rice and SMU lurking 39 points back on the women’s side. One more day of racing from Houston to go…
