Conference USA Championships

HOUSTON, Texas, February 26. THE Rice Owls hoisted the 2011 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championship and Invitational trophy Saturday night at Houston's CRWC Natatorium on the university's campus. The Owls tallied 702 points in the three-and-a-half day tournament.

East Carolina took home runner-up honors with a team score of 676.50 while the five-time defending champions, the Mustangs of SMU, claimed third place (658). Houston (522), Tulane (313.5), and Marshall (279) rounded out the championship standings. Invitee North Dakota also tallied 371 points.

In the 1650-yd freestyle, freshman Alice McCall of SMU took the top spot with a NCAA `B' qualifying time of 16:36.83. Two Rice swimmers rounded out the medal finishes as Quincy Christian touched the wall at 16:45.58 and Danielle Spence finished at 16:52.57.

Next up in the finals was the platform dive where Lacey Truelove earned the top spot for the second-straight year. Truelove scored 309.10 points and edged SMU's senior, Audra Egenolf who tallied 291.6 points. Truelove's teammate Julia Lonnegren finalized the medal placing with a third place score of 284.30.

SMU's Therese Svendsen set her second meet record of the weekend in the 200-yd backstroke, a record which she broke last year as well. She clocked in at 1:53.82, a full five seconds ahead of teammate Deanna Matthews (1:59.03). Both times are NCAA `B' qualifying scores.

In the 100-yd freestyle, it was ECU's Jenna Stewart who placed first by clocking in at 49.73. Nina Rangelova of SMU placed second (50.10) and Tulane's Kayla Alf-Huynh rounded out the medal winners with a time of 50.26.
For the second time of the night, an SMU swimmer set a meet record. This time it was Raminta Dvariskyte who clocked in at 2:13.88 in the 200-yd breastroke, breaking her previous meet record back in 2009. Houston's Beccy Hillis came in second with a time of 2:15.41. Both times are NCAA `B' qualifying scores.

Denisa Smolenova took home the gold in the 200-yd butterfly with a time of 1:59.53, qualifying her in the NCAA `B' standards. Silver medalist was ECU's Meaghan Rauscher with a time of 2:01.36 and Rice's Erin Mattson won bronze clocking in at 2:01.87.

In the final event of the meet, SMU won the 400-yd freestyle relay with the quad-group of Nina Rangelova, Emily Vavourakis, Genevieve Konicke and Monika Babok with a time of 3:19.88. Rice secured second place (3:24.36) and East Carolina took home third (3:24.49). All times were NCAA `B' qualifying times.

Individual awards were also handed out, as voted upon by the league's head coaches. SMU's Svendsen was named the Women's Swimmer of the Meet for the second-straight year. She set two Conference USA meet records and took home six gold medals. Rice head coach Seth Houston earned his second-straight Coach of the Year award. Senior Audra Egenolf earned the Diver of the Year award with a first place finish in the 1-meter and two second place finishes in the 3-meter and platform. Houston's head diving coach Jane Figueirdo earned her Diving Coach of the Year. Figueirdo has won this award every year since 2002.

In the Men's Invitational, Hawai'i was crowned champion with a total of 1,018.5 points and swept this year's coaching awards as Head Coach Victor Wales and Diving Coach Mike Brown were awarded. The Invitational co-swimmers of the meet were given to Tom Cole of SMU and Luca Mazzurana of Hawai'i. Thomas Rugg of Hawai'i took home the Diver of the Meet honor.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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