Florida International vs. Tulane

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, November 13. KYLIE Kastes' day began as one of tears but ended in all smiles as the Tulane University women's swimming and diving team cruised past Florida International, 176-118, Saturday morning at the Reily Student Recreation Center Natatorium.

The lone senior on the Green Wave roster, Kastes was honored with a pre-meet ceremony and her emotions got the better of her as the team captains presented her with flowers and a framed photograph. Five events into the dual-meet, however, Kastes was pumping her fist in pride as she won the 100 back with a time of 58.89 and helped score 18 of the Green Wave's points after helping the 400 free relay team finish second (3:37.36), posting a third-place finish in the 200 IM (2:12.14) with touching the wall fourth in the 100 free (54.30).

"The team did really well," Tulane head swimming and diving coach Lena Guarriello said. "They actually did do all of the little things right, which I think helped them race a lot better. There were some tight races and we came out on top in most of those. The team raced exceptionally well today. It was good to see Kylie win an event and to see the girls really step up and swim some events which were their third, fourth or fifth events today."

Tulane won 11 of the 16 events on the day with victories, and the Green Wave were a bit shorthanded as Hagar Elgendy was absent while participating in the Egyptian Nationals and Rachel Ranson was sidelined with a stress fracture. With the win, the Green Wave improved to 2-3 on the year. Florida International, meanwhile, fell to 3-4.

The Green Wave posted 1-2-3 finishes in 100 and 200 backstrokes and the 200 IM, and posted the top two times in both the 200 and 1650 freestyles.

"We just went into it with a lot more confidence than we have in the past," Kastes said. "The last few meets like LSU, we knew they were a big SEC team. With a team like FIU, they do have a lot of strong girls but we knew if we were able to do what we do in practice every single day then it would pay off. We're working on the little things and as our times have shown here, we really are making improvements.

"We put everything together. It's nice to see all the hard work and doing all the little things right really paying off in the end. We just stood up and raced and did what we know how to do."

Freshman Sadie Eicher opened the day with a third-place finish in the three-meter springboard (174.75) and Tulane posted its first victory of the day in the 200 medley relay where Kayla Alf-Huynh, Erin Cunningham, Grace Tarka and Kristine Gu posted a time of 1:49.38.

From there, Allie Evans (17:25.27) and Mekala Pavlin (17:31.88) finished 1-2 in the 1650 free as did Kastes and Elizabeth Whitaker (1:56.15) in the 200 free. Alf-Huynh, Lauren Pfohl and Rebekah Harris swept the top three spots in the 100 back with respective times of 58.89, 58.96 and 1:00.91, and Cunningham posted an individual win in the 100 breast with a time of 1:08.43.

Emily Needham kept the wins coming with a 2:07.00 in the 200 fly and the trio of Pfohl (2:06.84), Alf-Huynh (2:11.23) and Harris (2:11.89) finished 1-2-3 in the 200 back five events later. Cunningham posted her second individual win of the day with a 2:26.63 in the 200 breast as did Evans with a 5:05.67 to win the 500 free. Tarka won the 100 fly with a 58.56 and Alf-Huynh, Tarka and Kastes posted the final top-three sweep of the contest with times of 2:10.21, 2:11.26 and 2:12.14, respectively, in the 200 IM.

Pfohl tallied the Green Wave's top time in the 50 free with a 25.33 to finish second and Eicher finished third in the one-meter springboard with a score of 213.45. Evans added a third-place finish in the 100 free at 54.24 and the quartet of Gu, Evans, Kastes and Pfohl combined to finish second in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:37.36.

"On paper, I knew that we were close with this team," Guarriello said. "I just had a feeling that the girls' true colors were going to shine and they were really going to get up and race. I think they did a good job of that. It's a confidence booster, but they're a pretty humble team. It's not going to be the kind of meet that makes us overconfident going into next week. We know we're going to see some big teams and I don't think the girls are going to let this meet give them any false confidence."

Tulane returns to action on Friday, Nov. 19, when the Green Wave opens play in the Phill Hansel Cougar Classic in Houston, Texas. The three-day event culminates on Sunday, Nov. 21. That will be the final event of the fall for the team, and the Wave opens the spring portion of its schedule on Jan.7, 2011, when they travel to the West Coast to take on San Diego State.

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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x