The SMU Mustangs continued their at least-a-decade-long winning streak over their Metroplex rivals the North Texas Mean Green with a 131-112 victory that was more thrilling than this series has had in a long time.
North Texas started off the meet impressively by going blow-for-blow with the SMU Mustangs, starting with a 3:49.67 in the women’s 400 medley relay. UNT got off to a big early lead from one of their stars Mona Groteguth, who swam a 56.89 on the opening backstroke leg. SMU didn’t use their best backstroker or sprint freestylers on this relay, however, and while that cost them this relay, those swimmers were fresh and performed very well later in the meet.
SMU’s Alex Manasso won the next event, the 1000 free, pretty handily in 10:19.66, but the Mean Green held on to the lead thanks to a 2-3-4 finish behind her.
That lead grew when Mean Green freshman Isabelle Morris (1:51.65) and senior Mona Groteguth (1:53.35) went 1-2 in the women’s 200 free, with Morris dominant to the extent of having the fastest split on each 50 yard segment of this race.
In the next event, the women’s 50 free, SMU unleashed their aforementioned stars, with Isabella Arcila (22.81) and Nathalie Lindborg (23.67) taking the top two spots. Arcila, even after her great junior season last year, has taken her performances to a new level as a senior. 22.81 is almost as fast as she went at her conference championship meet last season (22.80), and this year she’s been faster at three other meets already.
North Texas remained in the lead, though, still riding the lead that they built with early success. They’d open that up a little bit more in the next event, the 200 IM, as Krista Rossum won in 2:04.56 – but this time, SMU mitigated the damage with a 2-3-4 result.
SMU’s Madeline Wainman topped the women’s 1-meter in a close, 12-point win over UNT’s Jasmine Abercrombie to tie the meet at 56; coming out of that break, Sydney Buckley (57.47) won the 100 fly for the Mean Green and beat out SMU’s Tiffany Sudarma (57.63) for top points. Not only did Buckley win, but Ashley Payne (59.64) and Eva Oesterhus (1:00.15) took 3rd and 4th to give the Mean Green a little bit of cushion.
Just as the team from Denton started to open up their lead, Lindborg and Arcila stepped in again with back-to-back wins. Lindborg swam a 50.69 to win the 100 free ahead of Morris (52.33); and them Arcila topped the 100 back in 55.52 over Bianca Bosca (57.40) to put the Mustangs into the lead for the first time in the meet by a score of 86-83.
The Mustangs took their third-straight win in the 500 free, when Kirsty McLaughlan surged around the 200 yard mark to put away a win in 4:58.43, beating Mona Groteguth (5:04.73) to add another few points to the lead.
North Texas would again take over a small lead thanks to a 1-2 finish on the 3-meter springboard, but that 1-point edge wouldn’t be enough.
The Mustangs were dominant in the 100 breaststroke, led by Tara-Lynn Nicholas (1:02.40) and Rachel Nicol (1:03.01) in a 1-2 finish ahead of Krista Rossum (1:04.27), to put themselves 10 points ahead going into the closing relay.
That meant that the team battle was still in contention, but anything shy of a UNT 1-2 finish would secure the meet for the Mustangs. SMU went far-and-away above that expectation, with a 1:34.63 to win by almost four seconds – including a 22.94 leadoff from Arcila.
This is the last official meet for both teams, though they’re both swimming an unofficial time trial with OBU on Saturday.