Houston Swimming & Diving Falls to Miami

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 21, 2011) The University of Houston swimming and diving team fell to the University of Miami 136.5-103.5 Friday evening at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center. The Cougars turned in four first place finishes and two NCAA “B” cut times in the losing effort.

The loss was the first on the season for the Cougars and the first under head coach Augie Busch. Houston was on the road last weekend and went 3-0 in Boston against Boston University, Northeastern and Boston College.

“I feel like our effort was there and that’s all you can control,” said Busch. “We’re really tired at this point with our training and nothing is coming easy to anyone right now. That’ where we should be right now.”

“We’re training really hard right now and we’ll be tired again next week. But this will be great work for our invite (Phill Hansel Cougar Classic Invitational) in four weeks.”

Heather Winn took first (10:18.56) in the 1,000 yard free to lead a strong showing by Houston as they finished 1,3,4 and 5 in the event. It was Winn’s third win of the year in the event.

Winn also registered an NCAA “B” cut time in the 500 yard free when she touched the wall in 5:03.98B to finish as runner up.

Reka Kovacs placed first in the 200 yard IM and notched another NCAA “B” cut time in 2:07.47. The junior delivered a strong back half of the event to overtake first place for her second 200 IM and third IM win on the season.

Junior Julia Lonnegren scored 13 points for Houston as she took first in the 1M and runner up in the 3M during the diving portion of the evening. Lonnegren dropped her first event of the year by less than five points.

“We’re still learning out there,” said head diving coach Jane Figueiredo. “My expectations go up every meet and we need to compete a little bit better. We are working hard but we have to keep going.”

The Cougars capped the evening off with a victory in the 400 free relay as Moira Fraser, Kim Eeson, Colleen Donovan and Maddie Clark teamed up to finish in 3:34.68.

Eeson turned in the fastest split of the squad (52.42) and finished as the runner up in the 100 and 200 yard freestyle. Frasier and Clark were on the second place 200-yard medley relay along with Beccy Hillis and Heather Coutts to open the meet.

The Cougars return to the water next weekend at Rice University for the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Med Center Invitational. Houston will face Arkansas, Boise State, Nebraska and Rice on the two-day event.