Catching Up With Conference USA Swimming

By Jaecey Parham, Swimming World College Intern

HOUSTON – This year’s Conference USA swimming squads are off to impressive starts. Each team having already swum fast times at this point in the season, the rest of the season looks promising. The seven teams that make up C-USA are Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Marshall, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, and Western Kentucky.

Florida International

The Lady Panthers have won four out of four dual meets so far, taking down Florida Atlantic, Florida Southern, Indian River, and Illinois State. On Nov. 7, against Illinois State, freshman Silvia Scalia posted a 1:58.77 in the 200 backstroke. This time gives Scalia the fastest time for C-USA this season, in addition to a NCAA B cut. Scalia also carries the fastest 100 backstroke time in the conference so far with a 55.76, which she swam against Florida Southern on Oct. 25. Another standout performance for the Lady Panthers includes senior Johanna Gustafsdottir who swam a 5:00.80 in the 500 freestyle.

Florida Atlantic

FAU defeated Florida Tech on Nov. 7 with an impressive swim from senior Annett Kovacs who posted a 2:02.84 in the 200 butterfly. The Owls also defeated Princeton, where Agi Bucz swam quick sprints, coming in at 51.77 in the 100 freestyle and 24.32 in the 50 freestyle. The Owls are 2-2 having fallen to Florida International and Texas A&M earlier this season.

Marshall

The Herd swam in a tri-meet against Vanderbilt and Xavier in their first home competition. Defeating Xavier and falling to Vanderbilt, the Herd had standout swims including freshman Gloriya Mavrova, who won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events. Mavrova swam the 50 in 24.38 and the 100 in 53.02. The Herd split another meet where they won against Wright State, but fell to IUPUI. Freshman Nele Albers won three events for The Herd at this tri-meet including the 200 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, and 200 IM. Another impressive race this season for Marshall came from junior Kacey Preun with her 5:06.27 in the 500 freestyle.

North Texas

Having its best start in Mean Green swimming history, UNT is 3-1 having only fallen to Texas A&M. UNT defeated defending C-USA champion Rice, as well as Houston and Incarnate Word. Beating Rice 151-140, senior Krista Rossum led the way winning three events. Rossum’s wins included the 200 I.M. in 2:04.37, which gives her the fastest time in the event for all of C-USA this year. Rossum also leads the conference right now in the 400 I.M. with a 4:24.12. Senior Mona Groteguth holds the second-fastest 200 backstroke conference time so far with a 2:00. 81, which she swam at the team’s match up against A&M.

Old Dominion

Competing in numerous meets already this season, the Lady Monarchs swam in a tri- meet against St. Andrews and Duke; Old Dominion claimed victory over St. Andrews but were defeated by Duke. Top performers in the tri- meet included Julia Vido who posted an impressive 1:04.20 in the 100 breaststroke. Diver Rachel Eckert also contributed to the team’s success by scoring a 309.3 in 3-meter. The Lady Monarchs fell to Towson earlier this season, but still had top swims from Colleen VandePoel who won both backstroke events. VandePoel’s 100 backstroke came in at 56.98 while the 200 was a 2:03.17.

Rice

C-USA’s defending champion team is 2-2, beating Incarnate Word and Houston while falling to Southern Methodist University and North Texas. At the Owls’ meet against SMU, freshman Kiley Beall posted the second fastest time in the conference this season with a 56.47. Standout seniors Erin Flanigan and Casey Clark lead the way for the Owls, both holding the conference’s fastest times this season in two and three events respectively. Flanigan carried the distance events with the 500 freestyle in 4:55.96 and the 1,000 freestyle in 10:08.03. Clark carried the sprints with the 200 freestyle in 1:51.14 and 100 freestyle in 51.01 in addition to the 100 butterfly in 56.16.

Western Kentucky

The Lady Hilltoppers have started their season off with wins in dual meets against Delta State and IUPUI in addition to winning a tri-meet against Tulane and Vanderbilt. At the tri-meet one of the Lady Hilltoppers’ top scorers, Michelle Craddock, swam a 1:51.21 in the 200 freestyle and 4:56.95 in the 500 freestyle. Both times put Craddock as second fastest in the conference right now for both events. Breaststroker Claire Conlon posted quick breaststroke times against Delta State, coming in at 1:03.76 in the 100 and 2:20.58 in the 200.

Coming Up

The weekend of Nov. 20 will be a big weekend for C-USA. Many teams will be swimming at invitationals this weekend. FIU will be at the Mizzou Invite, the Mean Green and Rice will be swimming against each other again at the Phil Hansen Invitational. This meet should make for an interesting one, seeing that UNT took down conference champion Rice, by close margins, at their last match up. North Texas finished fifth as a team at last year’s conference meet. With a coach in his second season at UNT and a freshman class full of breadth, the Mean Green seem to be up and coming. WKU, who was fourth at the 2014 conference meet, will also continue their season the same weekend at the Louisville Invite while Old Dominion competes at the Nike Cup Invite and FAU at the Georgia Tech Invite. Marshall will wait a weekend and return to racing the first weekend of December at the Zippy Invitational.

Jaecey Parham is a freshman sprinter at Rice. Prior to enrolling at Rice, Parham trained with the Lubbock Swim Club since she was nine years old. She also competed at Monterey High School, where she was a Texas state champion.

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