The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Rice
Women's Swimming and Diving sweeps Rice in season opener
10.11.2013 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Longhorns post 149-99 win over the Owls.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas swept all 16 events en route to a 149-99 win over Rice in the Longhorns' season opener Friday afternoon at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
"I'm very pleased with how we raced," said UT head coach Carol Capitani. "I had no idea where we would be. We were better than we were at the first meet last year. "
Texas opened the meet by placing first and second in the 200-yard medley relay, as freshmen Tasija Karosas, Madisyn Cox, Brynne Wong and junior Gretchen Jaques were victorious in 1 minute, 43.69 seconds.
Junior Kimmy Phillips, a NCAA Championships qualifier last season at North Texas, followed with a win in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:12.44. Senior Samantha Tucker, an honorable mention All-American in the 200 freestyle last season, was victorious in the same event Friday afternoon in 1:48.91
Senior All-American Lily Moldenhauer posted the Horns' first NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of the season when she claimed the 100-yard backstroke in 54.05. Competing in her first collegiate meet, freshman Tasija Karosas added a NCAA "B" cut of 54.91 for second place behind Moldenhauer.
"I'm proud of our newcomers," Capitani added. "With a lot of the freshmen, we'll just have to raise their expectations. One of the freshmen said college swimming is fast. And, it is. They're used to high school swimming. But, they're doing things in practice they've never done before, so we're expecting them to do things in meets they've never done."
Junior Skylar Smith cemented a one-two Texas finish in the 100 breaststroke with a winning time of 1:04.21. Freshman Jordan Surhoff took second in 1:04.41.
Junior Kaitlin Pawlowicz led a one-two-three Texas showing in the 200 butterfly and took the victory in 2:01.46. Junior Kelsey LeNeave took second in 2:04.28, and senior Victoria Cassidy placed third in 2:06.05. Senior Ellen Lobb added an easy win in the 50 freestyle in 23.21.
The Texas divers competed against one another given that Rice does not field a diving team. Junior Emma Ivory-Ganja, an All-America transfer from UCLA, took the one-meter event with 269.70 points.
Jaques led a one-two-three Texas finish in the 100 freestyle at 50.32 while Lobb placed second in 51.10. Moldenhauer registered her second of three wins on the day with a winning mark of 1:58.12 in the 200 backstroke, good for another NCAA "B" cut. Karosas notched her second NCAA "B" cut in as many events with her mark of 1:58.82 in the 200 backstroke.
Freshman Madisyn Cox scored her first collegiate win with a top time of 2:15.93 in the 200 breaststroke. With the team victory well in hand, Texas swam the remaining events as exhibitions and declined the points. Pawlowicz claimed the 500 freestyle in 4:55.88 while Moldenhauer picked up her third win of the day in the 100 butterfly at 54.98. Ivory-Ganja added her second diving win with 288.00 points in the three-meter event.
Cox collected her second win in as many events when she clocked 2:01.98 in the 200 IM. The Longhorns finished the meet with an easy win in the 200 freestyle relay, as Jaques, Tucker, freshman MaKayla Markey and Karosas finished in 1:34.73.
The Texas women will join the Texas men to host North Carolina on Thursday, Oct. 17. The meet gets underway at 4 p.m. CT at the Texas Swimming Center.
"We have a tall order ahead because UNC (North Carolina) will be really good next week," Capitani said. "We're going to keep training hard and we will need to race even tougher next week."
