Rice Invitational, Day Two

HOUSTON, Texas, October 29. RICE sophomore Chelsea Fong won the 200-yard freestyle and also notched both a second and third place finish in two other events to pace the Owl swimmers on the final day of competition at the inaugural Rice-Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Medical Center Fall Invitational Saturday afternoon (Oct. 29) at the Aquatics Center Competition Pool.
As a team the Owls finished third overall in the five-team, two-day 20-event meet with a total of 656 points. Arkansas won the meet with 1,135 points while Boise State was second in the team standings (838 points). Nebraska was fourth (575) and he University of Houston was fifth (459).

Fong followed up a solid win in yesterday's 200-individual medley (2:06.26) with a steady 1:51.81 to win Saturday's 200-freestyle over a field of 25 entrants. Not only did the standout from Cupertino, Calif., claim her second victory in as many days, she was also second in the 100-backstroke (58.88) by just three-tenths of second behind event winner Jessica Bottelberghe of Boise State (58.58). Fong was then third in the 100-freestyle (51.83) and she swam on three of the Owls' relays – including twice as the lead leg on second place finishes in both the 200- and 400-freestyle relays.

"Chelsea had an awesome meet," said Rice head coach Seth Huston, now in his tenth season at the helm of the Owls' swim program. "She swam well in every single race she was in from start to finish. That was exciting to see. There were a lot of events and a lot of heats for each event, and I almost found myself saying, `oh good Chelsea's in this heat, let's see what she's going to do now.'

"We were a little more `on' in the afternoon session than this morning," coach Huston explained. "It was a pretty early start and colder in the morning session, and I felt we came back stronger in the second half of the day and finished up looking a little better. (Sophomore) Lilly Marrow had a great race in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:24.25 for fifth place). (Freshman) Casey Clark had a nice 100-freestyle individually (52.68, seventh place), and she was top three in the 100-butterfly (57.97). Erin Flanigan took third in the 200-fly (2:05.63). We had nice swims across the board on all the `A' relays. It was the first time our 400-free relay was under 3:30 so that was good to see. We got better as the meet went on. Clear skies can do wonders for you."

The Rice swimmers are back in action again next weekend. The Owls travel to Fort Worth and Denton, Tex., for dual meets at TCU and North Texas on November 4th and 5th, respectively. All of the Fall Invitational's swimming results (18 events) are available on at the above links.

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.

Name*

Email*

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