Full, live meet results available here.
In their first season in the American Athletic Conference, the swimmers from East Carolina have made an early statement at their first AAC Conference Championship meet.
The Pirates men and women both opened the meet with victories in the 800 free relay, starting with the women touching in 7:14.69.
That included a 1:47.84 leadoff from Tori Angermeier, and continued on to a 1:49.35 from Bailie Monahan, 1:48.43 from Aaria Svanbergsson, and 1:49.07 from Lauren Chew on the anchor.
The swim broke the School Record, set in 2013, by five seconds – only Chew is a holdover from that relay.
SMU was never quite able to make a move in this, which is their weakest of the four relays, as they finished 2nd in 7:18.27. That time is a second slower than the Mustangs’ season-best, though the prior best included one of their top freestylers, Nathalie Lindborg, and this one did not.
Tulane was 3rd 7:19.22, also breaking their own School Record (by four seconds).
UConn swam a 7:19.53 for 4th, and Cincinnati took 5th in 7:26.64. While the time for the Bearcats was far from their season’s best, freshman Jacqueline Keire split 1:46.02 on their leadoff – the fastest split in the field.
In the men’s 800, the ECU men had three sub-1:38 splits to win in 6:30.55. That relay was made up of four underclassmen, including a 1:36.74 split from sophomore Fran Krznaric.
SMU again took 2nd, swimming a 6:33.11 behind a 1:35.16 leadoff from Austrian freshman Christian Scherubl. That will be borderline to what it will take to qualify for NCAA’s – it would not have been invited last year, but would have been the year before.
The SMU women bounced back in the 200 medley relay, sprinting to a 1:37.32 and an NCAA Qualification Time – meaning that all of their relays now with A or B standards are eligible to NCAA’s.
The winning group included Isabella Arcila (24.74), Tara-Lynn Nicholas (23.54), Marne Erasmus (23.54), and Nathalie Lindborg (22.29), all of whom, in true SMU style, represent countries other than the United States internationally.
The East Carolina women took 2nd in 1:41.13, Tulane was 3rd in 1:41.30, and UConn took 4th in 1:41.89 – including a 21.96 anchor from defending conference 50 free champion Chinyere Pigot.
In the men’s 200 medley relay, East Carolina took the sweep again, swimming a 1:27.19. The winning relay included Andre Smedstad (22.57), Rokas Cepulis (24.07), Adam Dear (21.21), and Nikola Simic (19.34) – a veteran relay with three seniors. SMU (1:27.65) led most of this relay, but Simic’s anchor leg charged the Pirates home for a come-from-behind victory.
UConn was 3rd, and Cincinnati was 4th.
The Houston women dominated diving, as expected, by taking the top four spots on the women’s 1-meter springboard. Even while taking last place in both relays, that was enough to give them a day 1 lead, though that should change in on day 2.
The men’s diving points, were spread around amongst only four teams, with SMU taking two of the top three spots (Devin Burnett won, Hayden Hodges was 3rd) to spring into the team lead. UConn’s John Brice took 2nd in 341.45 and East Carolina’s Matthew Mullen was 4th in 296.60.
While East Carolina clearly is the best team in the lanes early in this meet, with so few teams, and SMU scoring so many points, in diving, that will be enough to keep the Mustangs in contention for the team title.
Team Scoring
Women
1. Houston – 120
2. UConn – 108
3. East Carolina – 96
4. SMU – 82
5. Tulane – 72
6. Cincinnati – 57
Men
1. SMU – 134
2. East Carolina – 116
3. UConn – 105
4. Cincinnati – 72