Saturday, November 15, 2008

Swimming and Diving Sweeps Competition at Phill Hansel Duals Weekend

(Shown Right: Freshman Kim Eeson was an intergral part of the Cougars win this weekend)


HOUSTON, TEXAS (November 15, 2008) The University of Houston swimming and diving team recorded four wins on the final day of the Phill Hansel Duals Meet Weekend Saturday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium improving their season record to 9-1.

Houston defeated Rice for the second time this season (187-160), along with notching wins over Incarnate Word (275-78), Florida International (247-99) and Vanderbilt (271.50-78.50).
With the Cougars wins at the meet, Houston has now recorded at least nine wins for four straight seasons.

"It was another exciting weekend for us. The girls are really dead right now with the weight program that they are on and the two a day practices. The girls are pretty exhausted so we asked them to step it up today and they responded like we told them its not supposed to tickle," head coach Mark Taylor said. "On the first day we lost a few races that we shouldn't have so we had a team meeting at the end of the first day and explained to them our expectations for today and they met those expectations."

Taylor was happy with the way the swimmers performed at the meet but he was more please with the way the assistant coaches have been preparing the athletes. He said the divers are always ready to go under head diving coach Jane Figueiredo and Jaime Lewis has been a super addition to the full-time staff.

The Cougars started off the afternoon with a win in the 400-yard medley relay. Jessica Shamburger, Beccy Hillis, Sasha Schwendenwein and Kim Eeson finished the race with a time of 3:52.47. The "B" team of Andrea Pa'lmai, Doreen Polotzek, Andrea Kells and Brittany Copeland finished fourth with a time of 4:04.24.

Eeson also won her second event of the day with a first place finish of 4:59.60 in the 500-yard freestyle. The time ranks as the 10th fastest performance in school history. Also finishing in eighth was Olga Bordatcheva (5:15.55) and Rachel Holcomb was 14th (5:35.15).

Houston continued to pace the meet, winning their third-straight event of the afternoon, with Schwendenwein taking the top spot of 2:03.12 in the 200-yard butterfly. Andrea Kells added a 2:13.88 10th place finish, while Danica Lubbers was 11th (2:16.87) and Natalie Newcomb was 13th (2:17.67).

Schwendenwein would also go on to win the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.80 and Eeson was second with a time of 52.39. Copeland and Anne Stone rounded out the Cougar swimmers in the event with a ninth and 18th place finish, respectively.

Andrea Pa'lmai added another win for the Cougars with a 2:05.08 finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Shamburger added a third place finish with a time of 2:06.83. Paige Bissett added a seventh place finish (2:13.15) and Markee Johnson was 14th (2:22.46).

Pa'lmai also finished second in the 400-yard IM to pace all Cougar swimmers with a time of 4:28.89. Hillis followed fifth with a time of 4:33.99 and Newcomb was 11th with a time of 4:47.29. Lubbers also added a 13th place time of 4:53.14 in the event.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Hillis finished with the top time of 1:05.36 which also marked the seventh fastest Cougar performance. Bordatcheva (1:10.24), Polotzek (1:10.30) and Borbala Juhasz (1:17.76) added 11th, 12th and 17th place finishes.

In the final relay of the meet, Houston took second in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Bissett, Shamburger, Polotzek and Copeland finished with a time of 1:40.02. The "B" team of Bordatcheva, Stone, Markee Johnson and Kells added a ninth place time of 1:44.61.

In the diving events, Anastasia Pozdniakova won her fifth-straight 1-meter competition with 322.10 points. Finishing in second and third was Lacey Truelove (266.20 points) and Rachel Erickson (219.70 points).

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